Evil Is A Tangible Thing
by foreverXabby
Summary: Aria Moretti was a vampire with more guilt than any one person should carry. She was convinced that she was a monster, that she was evil incarnate. Still, she was in love- with the one person she could not have. Her best friend, Damon Salvatore. Damon/OC
1. prologue

_Prologue: monster _

"_Sometimes I think evil is a tangible thing,"- the Most Dangerous Game_

She was a monster.

That had always been clear to Aria. Ever since she became a vampire, she had known that. it was the last thing her father had screamed at her before she ripped his throat out.

"si demonio! corre il male attraverso youre vene! tu sei figlio del diavolo, non mio!" _you demon! Evil runs through your veins! You are the devil's child, not mine!_

Aria still shuddered at the memory. She hated herself for killing her father. But even when she was a human she had anger issues. That was amplified when she became a vampire. She wasn't surprised that he had said that, though. Not even then. Aria had grown up in a small village in Italy in the 1500's. she was very catholic and her father had strong ties to the church. Even she was convinced that she was a demon. She considered suicide during her first century as a vampire because of it.

But Aria's natural instincts to stay alive overrode those feelings. Besides, she was sure that death was too kind for her, after everything she had done, all the lives she had taken, all the lives she had ruined, all the children who were orphans because of her, and all of the parents who had lost children at her hand. The worst punishment Aria could give herself would be to live within the hell she put herself in.

Even after she got better, stopped killing, turned her life around, Aria still felt the guilt that plagued her. 488 years later, Aria was stronger, wiser, and jaded. She wasn't the scared little girl who fled from her house after feeding on her father. Nor was she the predator who reveled in killing. She was simply a 488 year old vampire stuck in a 22 year olds body, living just to live, just because it was her instinct. She hadn't killed since the 1700's, only taking enough blood from humans to survive on. She liked to think that she was the perfect example of moderation.

Still, Aria could still see the faces of every single one of her victims. She could see the pain in their eyes as the light left them, hear their hearts stop beating, smell their blood. no matter how many years Aria went without killing, Aria would never make up for the years she had killed.

Aria was monster. Always had been and always will be.

**A/N: **this originally was a oneshot, but it was a very, very long oneshot. It was about 10,000 words and I wasn't even half way done with it. So I decided to turn it into a mini-story. this won't be a very long story, less than ten chapters, I think. Aria is portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence.

Review! I would love some feedback for this story!

~Abby :)


	2. it's always darkest before the dawn

**Chapter one**

"_It's always darkest before the dawn,"- Shake It Out by Florence + the Machine _

Aria Moretti groaned as the sunlight hit her face. It didn't burn her- the necklace around her neck made sure of that- but it didn't help her hangover one bit, and she had a particularly nasty one.

Aria was currently passed out on her couch in her Manhattan loft, and the sun shone through the celling-to-floor windows onto her. she opened one blue eye to see a man in his early 20's passed out next to her, wearing multiple neck wounds. She groaned again. Tequila was evil.

The man opened his eyes to see the beautiful woman he had slept with last night standing over him, sporting only her bra, panties, and a grimace. He started to slowly smile at her, but then the blonde with her golden locks started to compel her.

"Leave here, never think of it, me, or what we did last night again," she compelled with a slight British accent, never breaking eye contact.

He nodded, stood up, collected his clothes, and walked out of her front door. Aria sighed and rubbed her temples. Tequila was very evil indeed. She flinched as her phone went off. who would be calling her? she was friendless.

"What?" she growled, pushing her messy blonde hair out of her face. Her head was pounding terribly.

"_Good morning to you too, sunshine," _a familiar, sarcastic voice said smoothly, and she nearly dropped the phone.

"You have a lot of nerve, calling me," she said coldly, though she couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips and her undead heart beating fast in her chest. she missed that voice, more than she would ever admit.

"_Ria, I thought you were the forgiving one-" _he started to say, but she cut him off.

"It's been thirty two years. Thirty two bloody years! I was sure that you had gotten your dumb arse killed. And you choose to open with a snarky greeting? Not only am I the forgiving one, I'm also the smart one," she said in the same cool tone as before. In reality, Aria was so happy to hear from him, that he was alive to begin with.

"_Well, I didn't expect you to be British- it's throwing me off,"_ he retorted.

"Well, if you bothered to contact me in the last thirty years, my drastic change from French to British wouldn't of come as such a shock to you," she fired back.

"_Well, last time I checked, the phone worked both ways, Fish And Chips,"_ he said, and Aria glared at the wall.

"I was worried about you, dick. Sue me. all I ask for is a sign of life every decade, if you're going to refuse my company," she said, calming down and walking into her kitchen.

"_That's why I'm calling now, Ria. I've decided to pull you into my mess- like usual."_

"Like usual," she echoed, pulling a bag of O negative out of her fridge. "What did you do this time?" she asked warily.

"_It's a very long, messy, painful story, Aria," _he said, suddenly sounding tired. A feeling of foreboding swallowed her whole.

"Well, lucky for you I'm immortal," she joked, taking a sip of her blood.

"Where are you?" she asked after a beat of silence.

"_Virginia," _he answered, and she sighed.

"Please don't tell me…" she trailed off.

"_I had a diabolical plan, Ria," _he defended himself.

"Oh, of course. Because those have never blown up in our faces before," she said sarcastically.

"_I had to do it," _he said quite seriously and Aria sighed again.

"I'm guessing it's already done and you're calling me in as your maid to clean up your mess," she said irritably.

"_Yes, It's already done. But no, I'm calling you because you're my best friend and I need-" _he cut off abruptly, but Aria knew what he meant.

"I'll be there before you can even start to miss me," she said softly.

"_I'll be waiting," _Damon said before hanging up.

Aria sighed again, but was smiling wide. She had missed her best friend, no matter how much heartache she went through when she was with him.

**~EIATT~**

It took Aria hours to get to Mystic Falls, and she was anxious to see her best friend again. She had never been to Mystic Falls before- she had always urged Damon to stay as far away from that town as possible- but she knew where it was.

The small, quaint town was busy as she drove through it. The oblivious humans were unknowing of the monster walking among them. She found the Salvatore boarding house easily and was impatient to see Damon. without messing around, Aria walked right into the house, as there was no human owner.

The old, dusty house was empty, as Aria couldn't hear, see, or smell anybody. She frowned to herself- Damon should've been waiting for her.

"Damon?" she called. Running a hand through her curly hair.

A young woman appeared at the stairs, staring at her, bemused and a little fearful- _as she should be, _Aria thought.

"Dear God, please don't tell me he as a harem of women," Aria muttered, her eyebrows furrowing as she studied the girl. She seemed vaguely familiar.

A rush of jealousy overcame Aria as the girl frowned at her. she was very pretty, and Damon's type. But Aria noticed that she was fully dressed and the lack of bite marks on her neck.

"Can I help you?" she asked politely, walking closer to her.

"Yes sweet heart, you can. Tell Damon Salvatore to get his lazy arse out here!" Aria yelled the last part, slightly agitated.

"There's no need to shout, Ria."

Aria whirled around in 1/16th of a second to see her best friend leaning arrogantly against the door. 1/20th of a second later, she had him in a tight embrace, inhaling his scent that never changed.

Aria pulled away and slapped him quickly across the face, leaving him gaping at her.

"What was that for?" he asked, touching the handprint on his cheek.

"That's for all the shit you've undoubtedly done since the last time I saw you," Aria said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms over her chest.

Damon shrugged. "I deserve that," he admitted, before pulling Aria into another hug.

"I missed you Fish And Chips," he murmured into her hair, his arms going around her waist. Aria rested her head on his shoulder, missing his hugs. She just missed Damon in general. The past 32 years had been too long without him.

"Is there going to be an offensive nickname with every new accent?" she asked without pulling out of his arms.

Damon smirked. "Of course, Ria. It's like you don't know me at all."

_**~EIATT~**_

_November 7__th__, 1884_

_Maryland _

_Aria wandered around the small town in Maryland in complete darkness. The only light came from the moon and a small pub a few yards away from her. she was looking for a human to feed on and compel, since she vowed to never kill another human almost 200 years ago._

_She wandered towards the pub, light and noise pouring from it. Her common pray were drunks, since they were the easiest to attack ad gave her a slight buzz after. As Aria waited in the shadows, she saw a young man stumble from the pub. He was very attractive and very drunk._

_As she made to attack, she was suddenly tackled to the ground by her drunk future victim. His face contorted into and all too familiar one above her own. Aria wasn't impressed, though. She could tell by his sloppiness that he was a young vampire, only a few decades old._

_Not even a second later, Aria had the man pinned beneath her. her eyes turned red, the veins underneath darkened, and her fangs protruded out of her mouth. The man's face went back to normal, and his pretty blue eyes widened slightly. _

"_It is not polite to attack ladies. Didn't your mother ever teach you your manners?" she purred, a slight southern twang to her words._

"_My mother has been dead for almost thirty years," he blurted out, managing to push Aria off of him. _

_Aria watched the young vampire with interest. There was something about him that seemed so familiar, though she had never met him in her entire life. She pitied the vampire before her. clearly, he didn't know what he was doing. He was a baby vampire. He was also in pain, as his blue eyes were swimming with a kind of heartache that never really went away._

"_Who are you?" she asked bluntly, cocking her head to the side slightly._

_He managed a crooked, sarcastic smirk that definitely had girls fawning over him. hell, Aria's heart would have skipped a beat if it still worked._

"_Damon Salvatore," he said a bit sarcastically, kissing her hand with a southern charm he was, no doubt, born with._

_That's when it hit Aria. The lost look in his eyes, the sarcastic and arrogant way he carried himself, the way he tried to hide how alone and out of place he felt by giving into his vampire instincts._

_Damon reminded Aria of herself at that age._

_A sudden urge to take care of Damon, to make sure that he didn't end up with heavy guilt weighing down his shoulders like her, overcame Aria. She needed to make sure that Damon didn't end up like her, when he was so clearly on that path. She also didn't want him to be alone, nor did she herself want to be alone any longer._

"_I have a feeling that you and I will be great friends, Mister Salvatore," Aria said vaguely, a slight smile on her lips. Damon raised an eyebrow at her words, both confused and slightly alarmed at her words._

_But one thing was for sure; neither would ever be alone again._

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: Katerina The Von for reviewing!

Reviews are inspiring!

~Abby :)


	3. in the dark i can hear your heart beat

**Chapter two**

"_In the dark I can hear your heart beat,"- Cosmic Love by Florence + the Machine_

"Why are you back here, Damon? you hate this town, and its history with vampires isn't very pleasant," Aria said, sitting down on a couch.

"I'm afraid to tell you because you'll hurt me," Damon answered, pouring two glasses of bourbon.

"If you don't want me to hurt you, don't do things that give me reason to hurt you," Aria retorted, raising an eyebrow. "Can you at least tell me why I'm here? why you called me after thirty two years?"

"I told you on the phone, I did something and I just- I just need my best friend right now. That's why I called you," he explained, handing Aria a drink.

She smiled slightly. Damon and Aria were close, and she knew that he loved her in a friend/family way. He never said it, but she knew it. Still, it was nice to have him tell her that he needed her.

"What did you do?" she asked, wary. She thought that she might have an idea of what it might've been, why Damon hadn't recruited her to help him. but she prayed that she was wrong.

Damon sighed. "I tried to get Katherine back."

Katherine Pierce, the evil bitch who ruined Damon's life. Aria had never met her, and if she had, Katherine would've been dead. Damon revealed to Aria a plan that was a century in the making. How Katherine and the rest of the tomb vampires hadn't burned in the church like everyone else thought. They were saved by Emily Bennett, and left to rot in the tomb below the church.

Damon found a way to get Katherine out of that tomb, so that they could live happily ever after. The plan had cost a lot- lives, mostly. Still, Damon eventually got the tomb open. Only, he found out then that Katherine wasn't in the tomb. She never had been. Katherine knew where he was the entire time, and she didn't care.

Aria suddenly knew why she was there. Damon was broken. The woman he had been in love with, had spent most of his time planning to get back, didn't care about him. he tried to hold himself together, for months, but now he couldn't. He needed Aria and the comfort and love she always offered him.

Aria knew about Katherine since the beginning of her friendship with Damon. his love for her was obvious and cut her deep. Aria had to admit, she was more jealous of Katherine and how she had Damon madly in love with her than she hated her for putting Damon through hell, for damaging him almost beyond repair.

At that moment, Aria was furious at Damon. furious at him for leaving her all those years ago to execute a plan to get Katherine back. furious at him for falling into Katherine's trap. But she pushed her anger aside. Damon didn't need that right now. She was here to help him get over the bitch from hell, not to make him feel worse.

"I'm so sorry, Damon. I'm sorry Katherine managed to break your heart and not even be in the same town," Aria said finally, standing up to get him another drink.

"Ria, now I know that's not how you really feel," Damon said, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

Aria sighed as she refilled their glasses. Damon definitely knew her too well. Far too well for her own good. "I do feel sorry for you Damon, of course I do. If I knew where that slut was, I'd kill her right now. Just for you," she insisted.

"And I'm not questioning that. I'm questioning if that's all you feel." He raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed.

"Honestly, I question your intelligence if you didn't see this turn of events coming. Katherine is a sneaky bitch, a sneaky, slutty, manipulative bitch. I've talked to other vampires who knew her- this is a popular opinion of women. Most men I've talked to our head-over-heels, desperately in love with her. they make you look less sad and pathetic," Aria blurted out. Her eyes widened, feeling bad. She planned to wait until she was sure that Damon was better, less heart broken.

But he chuckled. "There's the Ria I know and love," he said. "Go on. I know there's more where that came from."

"Why didn't you tell me about your plan in the first place? Why did you avoid me for thirty two years? I'm am your best bloody friend, Damon! of all of the people in this world to tell your diabolical plan to, I like to think that I'd be at the top of that list. Who knows? If you had come clean about your plan, you might not be where you are right now," she continued her rant, not caring if she went too far. But all she did was put a grin on Damon's face.

"What?" she snapped, confused.

"I've just missed you like hell, Ria, that's all. I've missed opinionated, stubborn, fun sucking Aria Moretti," Damon said. Aria didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted.

"I'm not a fun sucker," she muttered. "You're just too out of control."

He just chuckled again and threw back his drink. That's when Aria noticed that his grin seemed a little forced, his eyes a little pain-filled. His hair was messy, his shirt wrinkled. He smelled like booze, blood, and sorority girls- the three things Damon used when to deflect his pain.

Damon Salvatore was heartbroken.

It still killed her, that Katherine affected Damon this much. But she was his first love, after all. he had spent a century and a half pining after her. still, Aria experienced her own kind of heartache, looking at her best friend.

"For the sake of our friendship," she said quietly. "I'm going to bite my tongue and not say any more offensive and mean things- at least until I've got the claw marks on your chest that Katherine made while ripping out your heart all healed up."

Damon frowned at her. "I'm fine, Aria," he muttered.

She rolled her eyes and reached forward to smooth down his messy hair. "I thought we've made it crystal clear that I'm immune to your lies, Damon," she said. "Now go put on a clean shirt- we're going out."

As soon as Damon left the living room, Aria sighed and sat down on the couch. Being here, seeing her best friend heartbroken over Katherine, it was like somebody was repeatedly stabbing her in the heart. Because Aria had a secret. She was in love. In love with the one person she could never have.

Her best friend, Damon Salvatore.

_December 20, 1919_

_New York_

_Damon spun Aria around the dance floor, both stumbling and leaning on each other for support. They were easily the "youngest," drunkest, and best dancers at the party. They were currently in New York- in a small town, full of rich, old men and their families. But they did throw amazing parties with all of their money._

_Aria and Damon didn't plan to stay in that town for too long- it was just a short pit stop on their never ending party train. But they couldn't pass up a party thrown by the mayor. It was rude and a waste of an opportunity to get really drunk._

_Aria giggled as the song ended and she and Damon made their way off of the dance floor. "You gotta ammit Ria, New Yorkers throw the best parties!" Damon slurred, grabbing another glass of champagne._

"_I dunno, Damon. I think 'Cago could give 'em a run for their monies!" she giggled again, her Irish accent lost in her slurred words._

_Her blonde hair was curled and she wore a blue dress that brought out her eyes. Aria was catching the eyes of all of the young men in the room, heirs to their fathers' fortunes. They stayed away from her, though. Because Damon._

_Aria didn't mind, though. She only had eyes for the man beside her. he handed her another glass of champagne and raised his. "To New York!" he toasted, grinning._

"_To New York," Aria agreed, clinking glasses with him. _

_They kept getting looks for their inappropriate behavior. But the looks only made the two smirk and toss back more alcohol. "May I have this dance, Miss Moretti?" Damon asked, offering her his hand._

"_Have I ever been able to say no to you, Mister Salvatore?" she asked, placing her gloved hand in his. _

"_Not since I've met you." He smirked and pulled her into his arms before twirling her onto the dance floor. Even drunk, Aria loved being in Damon's arms._

_Even drunk, the two vampires had their grace and poise intact. Their grace and poise was ruined by their constant stumbling and giggling. _

"_Shh, I think we're causing a scene." Aria giggled and pressed a finger against Damon's lips._

"_That's our specialty, Ria," he mumbled against her finger, his eyes sparkling._

_She giggled again and pulled her finger away and Damon pressed her tighter against him. in a random spurt of drunken fear, Aria mumbled into Damon's white shirt, "Promise me we'll always be together, Damon. promise me."_

_Damon pulled away and gazed down at her. "Of course, Ria," he murmured, kissing her forehead. "Always."_

_Aria smiled as they swayed side to side. She buried her face back into his shirt and closed her eyes tightly._

_Even drunk, Aria realized at that moment that she was in love with Damon Salvatore._

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: Samantha meyers, BeckyBoo12221, Kari10, TVDobsession106, SomebodyWhoCares, and Katerina The Von for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	4. this will be my last confession

**Chapter three**

"_This will be my last confession,"- Heavy In Your Arms by Florence + the Machine_

Aria was a bit of a hypocrite.

She knew that she was a monster, a murderer, and she had stopped killing. Yet, Aria still drank blood straight from its source. She tried to stick to blood bags, but every now and then, she'd bring a hot guy home and sink her fangs into him. Some people didn't understand why she did that, being so convinced that she was evil incarnate. Aria always just shrugged and replied "I'm going to hell anyway- might as well enjoy the ride."

At the small dive bar a few towns over, Aria started to miss the days when she wasn't with Damon. All those years without Damon, she was lonely and worried and fearful, but at least she didn't have to pretend not to be in love with a man who would never love her back.

"So, what shall we do shots of?" Aria asked as they sat down at the bar. "Tequila? Whiskey? Hot bartender?" she smirked at the tall, blonde bartender. Aria and Damon had been friends for so long that she already knew Damon's type. Granted, his type was just hot girls.

"I thought you were on a no biting diet?" he asked.

"I'm on a no killing diet," she corrected. "I try not to tempt myself, but I like to think that I have good self-control. Besides, you need fun and I'll make sure that Blondie will wake up in her bed tomorrow morning, with nothing more than a blurry memory she'll blame on alcohol."

Damon smirked slightly as Aria signaled the bartender. No, she'd make sure the blonde would live. But it was things like how Aria could care less that she was about to use the young woman for a night that made her sure that she was a monster.

"Can I get y'all anythin?" the bartender asked in a southern accent.

"Yes…" Aria looked at her nametag. "Britney, you can. I'd like a shot of tequila and my best friend would like a shot of you." Britney's brown eyes widened for a second before Aria compelled her.

Damon watched curiously as Aria bit the bartender's wrist, and Britney gasped in pain and pleasure. She pulled away and wiped the blood from her mouth. She then stood up, smirked at Damon, and went to compel the rest of the bar.

When she looked back at him, Damon was biting Britney's neck and she was moaning softly. Aria frowned, jealousy surging through her, already regretting introducing Damon to Britney. She shook her head and reminded herself that she was trying to fix Damon's broken heart, to help her hurting friend. That was all that mattered.

But still, when Aria returned to the bar, she sprinkled salt onto the back of her hand, licked it, tossed back her salt of tequila, and bit into her lime wedge. That shot of tequila was followed by more shots and more alcohol. Aria kept drinking until her jealously, love, and self-loathing was gone and all that was left was her and Jack Daniels.

"Ria!"

Somewhere between scotch and bourbon, Aria had fallen down in a booth, laughed her ass off, and found that she was unable to get up. She was probably drunker than she had been during prohibition, where everything was illegal so it made it so much more fun. Damon was a terrible influence on her.

"Aria!" Damon called again, suddenly appearing at her side and pulling her out of the booth. He looked a little drunk, but nowhere near as wasted as Aria. She giggled, her blue eyes wide.

"Ya have pretty eyes!" she exclaimed, falling into his arms.

"You know what I think is unfair? We came here so that I could have fun, yet you're the one wasted," he mused, half-holding up Aria.

But Aria wasn't paying any attention to him. "Les dance!" she announced, gesturing to the bar. Her blue eyes lit up and Damon smirked.

"I think I like drunk Aria better than regular Aria. She's much more fun," he said, leading Aria to the bar. It probably wasn't smart, having a drunk person so wasted that she could barely stand dance on the bar, but Damon would make sure that she didn't fall. Besides, she'd heal.

Every time Aria stumbled, she'd giggle ten times. Damon watched her dance like a maniac with amused eyes. he couldn't imagine not having Aria in his life. He regretted not telling her about his plan to get Katherine back. it had been hard, not having her the past thirty two years. If only he had fallen in love with Aria instead of Katherine.

His eyes widened and he jolted. Damon had never thought of that before, though he supposed it was true. Aria had always just been Aria to him. if he thought about her any other way, it would ruin their friendship- something he held so dear. Sure, he thought that Aria was devastatingly beautiful, but it was more of a notion than a thought.

Damon broke out of his thoughts just in time to see Aria spin around the bar, trip over her own feet, and fall off the bar. In the blink of an eye, Damon was on the ground and he caught her effortlessly.

Aria burst out laughing. "Damon Salvatore, my hero!" she choked out between fits of laughter. He just shook his head at put her down on her own two feet. The only people who understood drunk humor were drunks.

Aria's blue eyes focused in on a man in a corner booth, and she made her way to him. Damon's jaw set as he watched Aria slide into the booth next to the man and shamelessly flirt with him. Damon never liked Aria's boyfriends on principle, but he always chalked that up to protectiveness.

He and Aria were just friends. Best friends. But that didn't mean that they hadn't had close calls of romance in the past.

_October 31, 1975_

_Madison, Wisconsin_

_It was Halloween, and Aria and Damon had no better place to be than a lame college kegger- and Aria didn't even like beer. _

"_I can't believe I let you talk me into going," Aria muttered, glowering at the plastic cup of beer in her hand. _

"_Ria, your boyfriend's the one who invited us in the first place," Damon pointed out, before smirking and handing her a napkin. "Your blood's all smudged."_

_Aria glared at him and took the napkin. "I can't believe you forced me to dress up- as a vampire, no less- and you get away without one," she complained. Aria was dressed as a very stereotypical vampire, with fake fangs and all. but the blood all around her mouth was real. It belonged to her boyfriend, Steven. "And I really need to break up with him. he's so clingy."_

"_Well, I'd be happy to assist you with that." Damon smirked and Aria frowned. She knew that Damon still killed, and tried to stop him whenever possible, but she didn't judge. She had been far worse than him, back in the day._

"_I think I better break up with him on my own, Damon. that way he'll live," she said, glaring at her beer before handing it to Damon. "Let's go back to the apartment. I have some scotch stashed in my room."_

"_Aw, but I was having fun." Damon's eyes wandered over to the scantily clad college girls. "The best part of Halloween is that everything is slutty. Slutty cats, slutty nurses, slutty bunnies. Hell, I even saw a slutty pumpkin."_

_Aria looked down at her costume. A simple bloody corset, leather pants, and a red cape. Yeah, she looked a little slutty. "Please…" Aria gave her best pout and Damon sighed. _

"_I'll compromise- we can go home and get drunk on something other than cheap beer, if you dance with me." Damon offered her his hand and raised an eyebrow._

_Aria grinned and took his hand. Not only were they drinking buddies, but they were dance partners as well. Damon pulled her onto the makeshift dance floor, and promptly spun her in a circle. With an ease from having danced together for many decades, Aria wrapped her arms around Damon's neck and he placed his hands on her waist. They swayed side to side, easily putting the other drunk couples to shame._

_Aria gasped when Damon suddenly dipped her low to the ground, and then spun her back up. She spun into him, her back against his chest, and he dipped her again. Their faces were close together, and Aria's breath caught in her throat. Something changed in Damon's icy eyes, and he leaned in even closer to her._

"_Hey Aria! There you are!"_

_Damon dropped Aria and she fell to the ground, landing on her ass. Steven stared at them, confused. She suddenly wanted to rip Steven's throat out. He had just ruined something that she had only dreamed about. But if Damon and Aria had kissed, it would've ruined their friendship. He was in love with Katherine. Aria could never compete with that._

"_I'll let you two talk," Damon said gruffly, before walking away. Aria sighed and pushed her blonde hair out of her face. Steven offered her a hand, but she ignored it and stood up on her own. _

_It would've been a mistake, if they had kissed. And that's what Aria told herself every time she wished that Steven had showed up a minute later than he had._

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	5. so in love with the wrong world

**Chapter four**

"_So in love with the wrong world,"- Blinding by Florence + the Machine_

_1523_

_Italy_

_Aria's head pounded as she sat up. She groaned softly, feeling… different. Her heart was racing, and she was extra sensitive to the sunlight that was shining down on her. Aria was laying in the middle of a path, in a pool of blood. her own blood._

_What had happened to her? _

_Blue eyes wide, Aria sat up. She tried to remember last night, but she couldn't. All Aria remembered was being late for her curfew, and running down the path at night. Then… then some man stopped her. he wasn't a stranger, but Aria had only met him a few times. Who was he? What did he do to her?_

_Aria stood up on shaky legs. She had to get home, get out of the sun. Aria's gums were aching, and she felt like she hadn't eaten in years. Maybe her father would know what to do. Maybe Antonio would help her figure things out. He always did._

_Taking a deep breath, Aria calmly made her way towards her house. She was going to be fine. She was Aria Gabriella Moretti. No matter what the world threw at her- dead mothers, deadly illnesses, suitors who she did not care for- Aria Gabriella Moretti always came out on top. She would be fine._

_Little did she know, Aria Gabriella Moretti was in transition to become a vampire._

Aria groaned, feeling like somebody was hitting her in the head with a giant sledge hammer repeatedly. That had to be the worst hangover she had had in centuries.

"God, I hate Damon Salvatore," she moaned, pushing her golden blonde curls out of her face. That was when she realized that she was in a bathtub, in an unfamiliar bathroom. Her back ached from her uncomfortable sleeping spot, as she carefully rose out of the tub.

She walked over to the sink, and placed her hands on the counter to steady herself. She looked in the mirror and took in her appearance. Her blonde hair was frizzy and matted and wild. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and tired looking. Her makeup was smeared all around her face. She looked hungover in general. But it was the dried blood smeared around her mouth that held her attention.

"I am never drinking again," she muttered. She looked down at the rest of her body to see that she was just in a bloodstained bra and boxer shorts. No, she was never, ever drinking again.

"Ah, hell," she muttered, realizing that she wasn't at the boarding house.

"There you are, baby." A shirtless man in only his boxers came into the bathroom. There were bite marks on his neck and chest. he walked towards her, a goofy look that love struck fools wore on his face.

"Ah, hell," she repeated, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples.

"Should we pick up where we left off?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck.

"No," she said, opening her eyes and pushing him away. "You won't remember what we did, who I am, or what I am," she compelled him. "Now go away."

He left the room, and Aria took the time to clean herself up. She washed the blood from her body, brushed her hair and put it into a bun, and found her dress and jacket in the bedroom. She dressed quickly and then left the apartment building.

Aria ran to the boarding house, the sun hurting her eyes and not helping her hangover at all. when she walked into the boarding house, she rubbed her eyes. "I hate you so much, Damon Salvatore," she repeated. She only drank as much as she had when he was with her.

"Who are you?"

Aria's attention snapped to three young girls, three teenagers. One was the brunette from yesterday, the one who reminded her of somebody. One was a blonde girl who Aria could easily tell was a vampire, a very young one. And the other one was a dark skinned girl who watched Aria distastefully. Aria knew that look, and knew that only witches were capable of giving it.

"A very hungover Aria Moretti," she replied, rubbing her temples.

"You're a friend of Damon's," the brunette stated, eyes widening slightly as she figured it out. This seemed to make witchy hate her even more.

"And you're the doppelganger of Katherine Pierce," Aria said, her teeth gritting as she realized it. She had only seen pictures of Katherine, but the brunette was a dead ringer for her.

"You know Katherine?" Blondie spoke up.

"If I knew Katherine, there wouldn't be a Katherine to know," she countered, walking into the kitchen and pouring herself a cup of coffee.

She eyed the witch again as she poured two cups of coffee. Aria had never liked witches. They were so judging of vampires and their "holier-than-thou" attitude pissed her off.

"I'm Elena," the doppelganger introduced herself. "That's Caroline and Bonnie." She gestured to Blondie and Witchy.

Aria nodded absentmindedly. She preferred to call them Blondie and Witchy. "So, you're friends with Damon?" Elena repeated, obviously trying to determine if Aria was threat to her loved ones.

"Best friends," she corrected.

"If you're best friends, why haven't you been here before?" Blondie/Caroline asked.

"Because that dumb arse got caught up in some idiotic plan to get that horrid bitch back, and ditched me three decades ago because he knew that I would do anything to stop him," she explained, adding cream and sugar to her coffee. "Oh, and don't worry about me dropping bodies. I haven't killed since the 1700's," she added, taking a sip of her hot drink.

Elena and Caroline visibly relaxed, but Bonnie still was stiff. God, she hated witches. "So, why are you here?" Aria asked Elena.

Elena went on to explain that she was dating Damon's younger brother, Stefan. Aria had met him in the 20's, when he was knee deep in blood and body parts. Stefan was ripper, and from what Elena explained, he was on the wagon right now. He only drank animal blood at the moment.

"I'll see you girls around," Aria said, grabbing her coffee and walking up to Damon's bedroom. She had to give him hell for getting her drunk and then letting her go home with some random bar tool.

_1523_

_Italy_

_Aria didn't know what had come over her. one minute she was in her bedroom, trying to deal with what was happening to her, the next a servant had sliced her finger open and the smell of her delicious blood filled the air. Aria approached her, transfixed on her dripping blood. _

_The servant watched Aria, horrified as she drank the blood from her finger. After a few gulps, Aria felt something change within her. fangs extended from her teeth, veins darkened under her eyes, an her baby blue eyes turned red. Then she sunk her fangs into the servant girl's neck._

_The servant's screams alerted her father. But by the time he showed up, the servant was dead at Aria's feet. She stared, horrified, at the morbid sight. What had she done? What had she become?_

"_Aria!" Aria looked up at her father, his gaze locked on the grisly sight in his daughter's bedroom. A dead servant at his daughter's feet, his daughter's mouth covered in the servant's blood. "__Cosa hai fatto__, __Aria__?" _what did you do, Aria?

"_Padre!" she exclaimed, stumbling away from the servant. "__padre,__non mi__dire__! __giuro__!" _father, i did no mean it! I swear!

_Her father backed away from her, eyes wide with fear. "Monstro," he breathed. "Monstro. Monstro!" _Monster.

_Aria blanched. "__No__, __io non sono__un mostro." _No, i am not a monster.

_"si demonio! corre il male attraverso youre vene! tu sei figlio del diavolo, non mio!" _you demon! Evil runs through your veins! You are the devil's child, not mine!

_Aria glared at her father with loathing she had never directed at him before. Then she ripped his throat out with her teeth._

Aria and Damon had shared a thousand bed together, during their years of friendship. So it was with ease that Aria climbed into bed with Damon and placed her face close to his. "Wake up, Damon," she murmured, a smirk growing on her lips.

Damon opened his eyes and didn't even jump to find Aria invading his personal space. "Hey Ria," he said casually, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Aria groaned and then laid down next to him in his bed. "What are you doing here?" he asked her. "Didn't you go home with some bar tool, drunk beyond belief?"

"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. You're supposed to stop me from doing stupid things when I'm drunk," she muttered.

Damon smirked. "Hey, we went out last night so that I could have some fun, and you're the one who got laid. If anyone should be pissy, it should be me."

Aria stuck her tongue out at him and then reached for the coffee on the nightstand. "Want some coffee?" she asked.

"You read my mind," he replied.

They drank their coffee in silence, and after a few minutes of comfortable silence, Aria brought up something that had been running through her mind. "So, I met Elena, Blondie, and Witchy downstairs," she started casually.

"Did you?" Damon raised an eyebrow, wondering where she was going with that.

"Yeah. Elena's a dead ringer for Katherine, don't you think?" Aria raised her eyebrows and Damon sighed, knowing what she was silently asking.

"Of course, I thought about going after her, Ria," he said quietly, and Aria flinched slightly. He didn't notice.

"She's madly in love with your brother, Damon," she murmured, sipping her coffee.

"I know that. I also know that, for the good of me and women alike, I should just stick to one night stands for a while, if even. You're the only woman I need in my life, Ria." Damon smiled at her, and Aria took a deep breath. if her heart still worked, it would be pounding in her chest.

"Always," she murmured to herself. Aria and Damon, together for always.

_1523_

_Italy_

_Aria stared at her father's dead body, next to the servant's. what had she done? _

"_Aria!" Antonio came running into the room. "__ho sentito__urlare.__cosa c'è di sbagliato__?"_ I heard screaming. What is wrong?

_Then Antonio took in the dead bodies and Aria's bloody face and tears, and put it together. "__vampiro,"_ _he muttered. _

"_Antonio!" Aria exclaimed, walking towards her big brother, but he backed away. _

_He stared back at Aria with stony blue eyes. "Ti ucciderò__, __voi__che male si." _I will kill you, you evil being.

_Antonio meant it, too. He would kill his newly turned little sister, because he was a vampire hunter._

_Aria Gabriella Moretti was a vampire. She was also apart of the Moretti clan, a family that had hunted vampires for centuries. _

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: SomebodyWhoCares and Samantha meyers for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	6. be careful of the curse

**Chapter five**

"_Be careful of the curse,"- Howl by Florence + the Machine_

Aria closed her eyes and snuggled her face into Damon's shoulder. This didn't alarm him, though. She always got extra affectionate when she was hungover. "Can we stay in bed all day?" she mumbled, her head still pounding.

"Fine by me," he muttered, pulling her closer. It was a sad thing to admit, but sometimes Aria liked to pretend that they were a couple, when they snuggled like that. she closed her eyes, a small smile on her lips.

Aria fell asleep like that, her face buried in her best friend's shoulder. She woke up a few hours later. Damon was still asleep, his arm wrapped around Aria's waist. He looked so innocent asleep, childish almost. His lips were pursed, his eyebrows furrowed. Aria smiled softly and yawned, before pulling away from Damon.

After taking a shower, Aria put on shorts and a blue tank top. Her golden hair hung in ringlets down her back and Aria decided not to put on any makeup. She felt less hungover after her nap and shower, and decided to put on music and start her own little dance party.

Aria was a dancer. She loved dancing, though her favorite kind of dancing was the embarrassing, dancing-in-your-bedroom-where-no-one-can-see dancing. Damon always made fun of her dancing.

"'_She likes, she likes, she likes to fight and make up,_

_She likes, she likes, she likes to be alone,_

_She likes, she likes, the heartache of a breakup,_

_She likes, she likes, to be my bittersweet love.'"_

Aria sang along with the song, as she dance and spun around the living room of the boarding house. She whipped her hair around, dancing out her pent up frustration and heartache, caused by keeping her love for Damon a secret.

"Hey, Ria. The 80's called, they want their dance moves back."

Aria rolled her eyes at Damon, who stood, leaning against the stairs, shirtless and smirking. "Don't be a hater, Damon," she called over the music, continuing her embarrassing dancing.

He rolled his eyes. "What happened to staying in bed all day?" he asked, watching her dance. He had to admit, the way Aria shook her hips and swung her blonde mane around was… sexy.

He shook his head quickly. No, he wasn't allowed to consider Aria sexy. "I felt like dancing." Aria shrugged, and then grabbed Damon's hands and pulled him away from the stairs. "Dance with me."

He sighed but allowed Aria to pull him to her makeshift dance floor. Soon the song changed to a slow one, and Damon rested his hands on her hips, his fingers skimming her bare skin, for her blue tank top had ridden up to reveal her stomach, due to her wild dancing.

"'_I remember when I lost your head  
>sometimes I wonder how you stay so sad when you're so beautiful<br>I remember every word you said  
>How you were scared because you'd never been<br>Somewhere so beautiful, so beautiful,'" _Aria sang softly into Damon's shoulder.

"Thank you," Damon said suddenly.

"For what?" Aria mumbled, looking up at him.

"For just being you," he said simply.

She raised an eyebrow. "For being freaky Aria Moretti who changed her accent every decade and danced in public like nobody was watching?" she asked skeptically.

For being stubborn Aria Moretti, who is a huge freak and tells me off when I need it, and who's always there when I need her," he corrected.

"'_So tell me why we're talking when we dance so good  
>Tell me why we're talking when we dance so good<br>I know you can't stay,  
>But I wish you would, I wish you would,'" <em>she sang before answering.

"Hey, it's what best friends are for, being there when you need them," she said with a smile.

Damon frowned suddenly. "Yet I've never been there for you," he muttered.

Aria's eyes widened. "That's not true, Damon!" she exclaimed.

"Yes it is, Aria. I constantly take from you, and I don't give you anything back. it's not fair to you."

She frowned at him. "You give me things, Damon. trust me, you do," she insisted.

"Name one time I've ever been there for you," he said skeptically.

"I can. Easily," Aria answered.

_August 14, 1885_

_Massachusetts_

_Aria let her feet dangle off of the dock as she watched the sky start to lighten. Her necklace that protected her from the sun was next to her. she was finally going to do it. Aria was going to end her pathetic excuse for an existence._

"_What are you doing? You are going to burn."_

_She rolled her eyes as Damon walked to her side. She had tried her hardest to befriend him, to teach him the dos and don'ts of being a vampire. But he pushed her away. every time Aria reached out to him, he pushed her away. _

"_That is the point, Mister Salvatore," she said gruffly, never taking her eyes off of the sky._

_It only took him a few seconds to understand what Aria was trying to do. "You wish to kill yourself?" he asked quietly._

"_Why would you care? You made it very clear that you want nothing to do with me. so just let me spend my last hour alive in peace," she snapped._

_Damon didn't make any move to leave, though. "Why do you wish to die?" he asked, sounding thoughtful._

_Aria took her time to answer. "My entire life, I have lived simply to live, to exist. My life holds no real meaning," she said after a while. "But mostly, I deserve death. Every life I have taken over the centuries weighs me down like rocks. Guilt stays with you forever, Damon. and I cannot carry my guilt anymore."_

_Damon sat down next to her. "The only woman I ever loved is thought to be dead," he said suddenly. "But really, she is in a tomb with other vampires, and she is not getting out for a while."_

"_At least you have something to live for," she pointed out. "I have nothing. Nothing but my guilt."_

"_I am alone, Aria. I have been alone for twenty years. But then you have decided to bother me these last few months, and… I am not alone anymore," he said softly. _

"_You were mean to me," she whispered, finally looking at him._

"_I know, but I secretly missed you and your obnoxious tendencies when you were gone." Damon smirked slightly._

"_I am not obnoxious!" she exclaimed and he chuckled slightly._

"_You are not the worst company in the world," he admitted._

"_I do not mind you so much as well," she said grudgingly. "But I am tired of being alone, Damon."_

"_You won't be," he promised her. "I will be with you."_

_Aria didn't mind that. But meaningless life was not the only reason for her suicide. "My guilt is eating me alive," she whispered. "I hate myself. I truly hate myself."_

"_There is nothing to hate," Damon said softly. She looked up at him, slightly surprised._

_Damon placed her necklace into her hand. "If you choose to live, I promise that I will not let you be alone, Ria," he told her, before standing up. "But the choice is yours."_

_Aria watched Damon walk away. a second passed before Aria put her necklace on and ran after him. That was the moment Aria and Damon truly became best friends._

"You saved me from myself, Damon," she reminded him. "If you hadn't showed up, I wouldn't be here right now."

Damon saw her point, but he still shrugged. "You've still done a lot more for me, Aria."

"Maybe so," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "But you're the first person to ever convince me that I'm not as evil as I actually am."

He sighed. "I hate when you talk like that, Ria," he muttered. "You will never be as bad as me."

She just rolled her eyes and chose not to argue. Damon always tried to convince her that she wasn't evil, but he never succeeded. Still, Aria owed him her life. After a while of dancing in silence, Damon asked her, "Want to go to the bar?"

Aria groaned. "I am not getting drunk for a few days," she said.

"You can drink without getting drunk, Ria," he reminded her with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes but pulled away. "Fine, let me get ready."

Aria got changed into skinny jeans and a blue tank top. She put her curly hair up into a ponytail, then she and Damon drove to the Grill. when they got there, Aria ordered Coke to start with, determined to take it slow. She'd add rum to it later.

"Hey Ric." Damon suddenly smirked and pulled Aria towards the bar. "I'd like you to meet my best friend Aria Moretti. Ria, this is Alaric Saltzman. I turned his wife into a vampire and then killed him, a few times, I think."

Aria frowned at Damon. "I swear, you make it really hard to like you sometimes," she muttered.

Damon just smirked at Alaric. "She loves me," he said arrogantly.

_Yes, I do._

Alaric frowned at Aria. "Is she…?" he asked awkwardly.

"A vampire? Yep," Damon said, taking a sip of his bourbon.

Aria's eyebrows shot up. "How does he know about us?" she asked.

"He's the resident vampire hunter, Ria. Semi-retired," he explained.

"I hope you've tried to kill him a few times," she muttered darkly. "He deserves it, after what he's done to you."

"Oh, don't worry. I have." It still seemed to surprise Alaric that Aria was Damon's best friend.

Suddenly, a male voice interrupted the introductions. "Miss Aria Moretti. It's been too long."

Every particle of Aria's body froze at that moment. Her eyes widened and she was suddenly filled with dread. No. No. _No._

Slowly, Aria turned around to face an attractive man smirking at her. she swallowed slightly, as Damon frowned suspiciously at the man he had never met before.

"Anthony," she muttered.

"Who's that?" Damon muttered, not taking his eyes off of Anthony.

Aria took a deep breath. "Anthony. My creator."

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: purpleXorchid, CharlotteAHJones, 2cute4u-22, Alexis, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	7. no longer will i curse the bad i've done

**Chapter six**

"_No longer will I curse the bad I've done,"- Future Starts Slow by The Kills_

_1523_

_Italy_

_With newfound speed, Aria ran as fast as she could through her home, trying to get as far away from Antonio as possible. Her brother had just promised to kill her, for he was a vampire hunter, like their father and uncles and cousins. Aria did not know anything about vampires, for her father and Antonio wished to keep her in the dark about the supernatural._

_What had happened to her? Why did Aria crave blood so much? She was so scared, so terrified of what she had become. Antonio was going to kill her- she had to run. She had to run far, far away._

_The sound of a heart pounding made her stop. She could hear it pump wet, hot blood through a servant's body, and Aria's mouth watered. She was so _hungry. _All she wanted to do was to drink that hot, sweet blood. It would cure her of the burn of thirst in her throat._

_She approached the servant. The middle aged man smiled warmly at her and bowed slightly. He didn't notice her bloody dress, how her blue eyes were turning red, how the veins underneath those normally baby blue eyes were darkening. He didn't even notice her fangs extending, protruding from her mouth._

"_Buongiorno__, Miss __Aria."_ Good morning, Miss Aria.

_But Aria wasn't paying attention to his greeting. She roughly grabbed him by the neck and sunk her fangs into his skin before he even had time to scream. He struggled underneath her strong grip, but in seconds he was dead. Aria dropped his body, his warm blood still flowing out of her mouth._

"_Aria!"_

_Aria barely had time to dodge before Antonio shot a wooden arrow at her. It hit the wall behind her, and her gaze followed it before snapping to her big brother. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Tears of fear, self-pity, and betrayal. How could Antonio try to kill her? Her, his beloved little sister?_

_Before he could try to shoot her again, she ran. This time, she made it to the front door. Aria made to run out into the yard, but sudden, burning pain stopped her. She gasped, the sun sizzling her skin._

_She looked back. She could hear Antonio approaching. She heard his frantic footsteps, his heartbeat, his breath as he ran. He was going to kill her if she didn't leave their manor. But if she went outside, The sun would burn her to death._

"_Aria, destra?" _Aria, right?

_Her gaze snapped outside, where a man stood. He was attractive, with olive tone skin, dark hair, and gray eyes. A mishevious, amused smirk formed on his lips, and he watched her curiously. But the thing that confused Aria the most was that she couldn't hear his heartbeat. He wasn't alive, not like Antonio was. Not like those servants and her father used to be._

"_Quindi__, tu sei __la donna__giovane e bella__ho girato." _So, you are the beautiful, young woman i turned. _"la figlia del__cacciatore che__ha cercato di__uccidermi__per settimane." _The daughter of the hunter who has been trying to kill me for weeks.

"_Chi- __Chi sei?" _Who- who are you? _The handsome man worried Aria, put her guard up. She was confused by what he was talking about. She didn't understand it._

"_Anthony," he replied. "__Suppongo che__io ti__aiuto,__Aria__." _I suppose i shall help you, Aria. _He eyed her up and down, his smirk growing. "__Tu sarai__un po '__divertente __per me,__ci scommetto." _You shall be some fun, i bet.

_Aria looked behind her. Antonio was fast approaching. Anthony scared her, but he was her only shot at escaping her brother. "Qui__, __indossare questo__. __Esso si applica__a proteggere__dal sole." _Here, wear this. It shall protect you from the sun. _Anthony tossed her a necklace, and it landed by her feet. _

_Aria stared at it for the longest time. Could she trust him? Would the necklace actually keep her safe from the sun's destructive rays? She didn't have much time to think, and her instinct for self-preservation took over. Without another thought, Aria put on the necklace and stepped out of her house. It really did keep her safe from the sun._

_Anthony smirked at her again and offered her his arm. "Tu e__io stiamo__andando a__divertirsi__così tanto__, mio __ caro__Aria__." _You and I are going to have so much fun together, my dear Aria.

_Without another thought, Aria took Anthony's arm._

"It is such a pleasure to see you again, Aria," Anthony continued, his eyes running up and down her body. "How long has it been?"

"Not long enough," she retorted through gritted teeth, as Damon frowned down at him. He had just realized that he never knew how Aria became a vampire or who turned her. He didn't know much about her past at all, really. She was born and raised in 16th century Italy. Her mother died giving birth to her. She had one big brother. She killed her father when she first became a vampire. Damon suddenly realized that they never really talked about her, usually him. It was always about Damon and Damon's problems, never Aria and her issues.

"Go away, Anthony. Leave," She hissed, narrowing her blue eyes at him.

"Ria, don't be like that. You know you missed me." it was Anthony's use of Damon's nickname for Aria that brought him out of his thoughts.

Damon glared at him. "She said leave, and I suggest you listen to her," he said darkly.

Anthony raised an eyebrow at Damon. "Oh, do you now? And what will happen if I don't?" Both men were arrogant and cocky. Both thought that they could easily take on the other. Anthony had a few hundred years on Damon, but he was also a lot drunker. It was about a fair fight.

"I think you know what'll happen." Damon moved protectively in front of Aria, who kept one hand on his arm to hold him back.

"Damon, just ignore him, okay? It's not worth it," she whispered quickly to him, never taking her blue eyes off of Anthony.

But Anthony just scoffed and rolled his eyes. "How adorable. Little Miss Ria has somebody to defend her honor. But you lost all of your honor, didn't you Aria? Along with your morals and humanity. You lost all of those after you started killing. After you started reveling in the lives you took," he spat.

Damon made to attack Anthony, but Aria held him back. "No," she growled. "You have five seconds to leave, Anthony, before I rip your heart out with my _teeth." _She was hiding how the truth of his words hurt her with anger. It worked well.

"Fine," he said casually, backing away. "I was getting bored with this dive anyway." Then he walked out of the bar before Aria could follow through with her threat.

Aria sighed and ran a hand over her face. When she opened her eyes, Damon was staring intently at her. "You have _a lot _of explaining to do."

_**~EIATT~**_

"One night, when I was human, I was walking home at night from a friend's house. It was past my curfew, so I was running. Then I was attacked. Anthony had just planned to drain me dry, but then he realized who I was and he thought it would be more fun to turn me instead," Aria explained back at the boarding house.

"Why would it matter who you were? Weren't you just the snobby daughter of some rich guy high up on the totem pole in Italy?" Damon asked.

She glared at him for calling her snobby before answering his question. "Yeah, basically. But there was more to my family than money, Damon. The Moretti clan was notorious to vampires, back in the day," She explained.

"Why?" Damon was growing more and more confused with his best friend's family history.

"We were vampire hunters, Damon. Almost since vampires have existed on this planet, my family has hunted vampires. My father and brother were currently hunting Anthony, and when he realized I was a Moretti, he thought it'd be a fun way to get revenge, to turn me."

Damon was silent as he processed this information. "Why am I just learning this now?" he asked finally, masking his hurt with indifference.

She sighed. "Damon-"

"No, Aria," he said suddenly, standing up. "I'm not the greatest friend, I know. But you know _everything _about me, even the dark, painful stuff. _Especially _the dark, painful stuff. I know next to nothing about you. That's not okay."

Aria sighed as Damon walked away. he had every right to be mad at her. But her personal history wasn't something she liked to think about. It only reminded her how much of a monster she was.

Aria sat on the couch and stared into the fire, letting Damon cool down before she went to earn his forgiveness. As she got lost in her thoughts, she started thinking about Anthony.

It was no coincidence, that he was in Mystic Falls the same time she was. Now the only question was why, after two centuries apart, was he searching her out now?

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: Katerina The Von, Samantha meyers, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Review :)

~Abby!


	8. all I know is everybody loves me

**Chapter seven**

"_All I know is everybody loves me," Everybody Loves Me by One Republic_

Aria walked into Damon's room, only to find her best friend laying in his bed, staring up at his ceiling. Aria sighed and leaned against a nearby wall, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry, Damon," she said after a moment of silence.

He grunted in response. Damon wasn't ready to forgive Aria just yet.

She sighed. "I don't like talking about my past," she said quietly.

"And you think I do?" Damon sat up and looked at her, his blue eyes full of anger. "I don't, Aria. But I still told you about my past, because that's what best friends do and I was under the misconception that that's what we were."

She flinched slightly. "We are, Damon," Aria assured him, walking towards the bed. "I really am sorry. You shouldn't have found out about Anthony like that."

Aria laid down next to him, and Damon stiffened. "I'm not ready to let this one go yet, Aria," he said quietly and she sighed.

"What can I possibly do to get you to forgive me, Damon? I'll do anything," She told him.

He frowned slightly. Damon wanted only one thing at that moment, and she was more than capable of giving it to him. He turned onto his side, so that their lips were barely an inch apart. Aria's breath tickled his lips, and he leaned in even closer to him.

Their lips met. Sparks flew. Fireworks went off. There was a passion between Damon and Aria that neither had ever experienced before. It was almost a hunger, a hunger for the other that was insatiable. No matter how many times they kissed, their hunger, their passion, their desire for the other only grew.

It didn't occur to either of them that they shouldn't be kissing. It didn't matter that they were best friends that Damon was still healing from Katherine. Nothing mattered to them, nothing except for the other. The kissing was too good, the hunger too greater, to stop.

Aria kissed Damon back fiercely, cupping his face. She moaned against his lips when he suddenly pinned her beneath him. Her blonde curls were splayed across the bed as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Damon pulled off her tank top, revealing a lacy red bra. He groaned against her lips, kissing her again.

"You're so sexy," he mumbled and Aria smirked. She easily flipped them over, due to being three hundred years older than him, and kissed him again. Damon held onto her hips as she ripped open his shirt with ease, sending buttons flying and ruining his shirt.

Damon frowned up at her before flipping them over and pinning her hands above her head. "That was my favorite shirt, Ria," he told her casually, kissing her neck. He bit lightly down and sucked gently, leaving bite marks all over her skin.

Aria's giggles turned into moans, and soon she had had enough of his teasing. She wanted him, and she wanted him now. Aria ran her hands down Damon's chest, eliciting a low growl from him. His blue eyes, darkened with lust, met her blue eyes, hooded with desire.

Damon's hands ran over the bare skin on her stomach, edging towards the buttons of her jeans. At the same time, he returned to kissing and biting her neck, his sharp teeth never piercing her skin hard enough to draw blood, just hard enough to leave bite marks that kept healing periodically.

"Do it, Damon," Aria moaned running her hands through his dark hair.

He growled again against the soft skin of her neck, and then practically ripped her jeans off of her body. She wore red lay panties, matching her bra. Damon groaned again as he took in Aria below him, breathing hard. Why did she have to do this to him? Why did he have to want her so badly?

"Do it, Damon," she whispered again, her voice thick. "Do it."

Without another word, their lips met again with a bruising force. Damon unhooked her bra and allowed the straps to fall down her shoulders. Then, without breaking their lips, his hands went to her underwear. Damon's fingers grazed the lace before he pulled them down-

"Damon?"

Damon gasped and sat up straight in his bed. He was panting, a hollow desire still in his stomach. Hollow desire for his best friend, left over from his dream about her.

"Damon?" Aria repeated, eyebrows furrowing. "Are you okay?"

Damon nodded slowly, blue eyes wide. Aria was his best friend, the one person who put up with all of his shit. Why had he just about slept with her in his dreams?

"Were you just inside my head?" he asked her suddenly. He didn't understand why she would've done that, but he just needed to make sure.

Aria looked even more confused. "No, I didn't. Why?"

Damon shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he muttered. "What do you want?"

Aria decided to just let her best friend's weirdness go. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I don't like talking about my past, but that's no excuse."

Aria's words were too close to Dream Aria's for his comfort. "its fine, Aria. I'm over it," Damon said with forced casualness.

Aria's eyebrows furrowed again. "Are you sure you're okay you're acting like a huge freak right now."

"Coming from you, that doesn't mean much," he retorted. "I'm fine Ria, honestly."

She nodded, but still didn't completely buy Damon's words. "If you're sure…" she pushed a blonde curl behind her ear and decided to let it go. "Want to get drunk with me? I could really use a few dozen drinks right now."

"Actually, I'm really tired. I'm just going to go to bed," Damon lied. He needed to distance himself away from Aria, away from the chances of his dream coming true.

She frowned again. "Fine," she said. "Nighty night. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

She left the room and Damon sighed again. He had just had a possible sex dream about his best friend. And the worst part was that it was his own mind that had come up with it.

But it was just a sex dream. It didn't mean anything.

At least, that's what Damon told himself as he faked sleeping.

_**~EIATT~**_

Aria walked down the stairs and into the living room. She was still wondering why Damon was acting the way he was. It confused her. A lot.

Suddenly, somebody had Aria pinned against a wall. Her face was pressing against the wall, while her attacker had her arms held uncomfortably behind her back.

"Who are you?"

Aria eyes widened slightly, as the voice of Stefan Salvatore rang in her ears.

_December 17, 1924_

_New York City, New York_

_Aria held onto Damon's arm as he pulled them through the crowded club they were in. Smoke was in the air, making it hard to see. Damon led them to an empty booth in the back. Suddenly, he stopped in front of a booth full of laughing men, staring at one young man in the middle._

"_Damon?" Aria frowned up at her best friend. But his gaze was glued on the man in the middle of the group, the leader._

"_Let's go," he muttered, pulling Aria away from the men. But it was too late. The man Damon had been staring at finally noticed them._

"_Brother." The man smirked at Damon, walking away from his friends to join them. "Twelve years, has it been?"_

_Aria's eyes widened as she finally realized who he was. Stefan Salvatore. Damon's younger brother. He didn't talk about him very often, and Aria knew it was because he "hated" him. They used to be close, but they were driven apart by Katherine._

"_Twelve years is not long enough," Damon replied coolly, his grip on Aria's arm tightening._

_Stefan rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know all about the eternity of misery," Stefan deadpanned, sounding almost bored. When his eyes trained on Aria and he smirked at him, she noticed how empty his eyes were, void of any emotion more complicated than lust or thirst. _

_Stefan was a ripper._

_Stefan let his eyes wander down Aria's body, before he looked over to a waitress and his smirk grew bigger. "If you'll excuse me, brother and company, I have a dinner date." With that, he walked away._

_Aria frowned after him. "What did he mean, 'eternity of misery?'" she asked Damon as he pulled her towards an empty booth._

"_Just ignore Stefan. I do," he replied, sitting Aria down on one side of a booth._

_Her frown deepened. "Your brother is a ripper, Damon. Did you know that?"_

"_I am very aware of my brother's strong thirst for blood, Aria," Damon said, in a tone making it clear he wanted to drop the topic._

"_Yet you're just letting him become this monster?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "How could you, Damon? how could you do this to your brother? To your own flesh and blood."_

"_This coming from the woman who murdered her father," he snapped back, his blue eyes darkening._

_Aria felt as if he had slapped her, and Damon sighed. "Aria, I didn't-"_

"_Burn in hell," she spat, before getting out of the booth and marching away._

"_Aria!"_

_But she was already gone._

"It's been a long time, Stefan," Aria said casually. "Would you mind letting me go? this is a rather uncomfortable position."

"Aria?" Stefan quickly let go of his brother's best friend. "What are you doing here?"

Aria smiled at him and hugged him quickly. She hadn't spent a lot of time with Stefan, but she liked him- when he wasn't Jackass Ripper Stefan. Of course, she hadn't told Damon that.

"Damon needed me," she said simply after she pulled away.

"So, of course, you came," Stefan finished, eyebrows furrowed slightly. He knew that they were best friends, but it always surprised him, how Aria would go to the ends of the earth for his brother.

"Of course." Aria walked away from Stefan and towards a table with a bottle of bourbon on it.

"Well, I leave you to your drinking," he said. "Isn't Damon going to join you?"

"No, he's sleeping. Wimp." Aria grinned and took a sip right out of the bottle.

"Try not to destroy my house, Aria," Stefan called as he walked out of the room.

"No promises."

Aria stared into the fire as she drank silently by herself. She wondered about why Damon was acting weird and why Anthony was in Mystic Falls. As if hearing her thoughts, Aria suddenly wasn't alone in the living room anymore.

"Hello there, Ria."

She sighed. "Go. Away."

Anthony smirked at her. "Nah, I'm good."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine then. I'll leave," she said, standing up and walking towards the stairs. Suddenly, Anthony was blocking her way.

"Come on, Aria. I'm bored. I just want to hang out with you." He pouted but she wasn't amused.

"Tell me why you're here," she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

Anthony suddenly sobered. "You, Aria," he whispered. "I'm here for you."

Then he kissed her.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you: SomebodyWhoCares, and Katerina The Von for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :D


	9. stabbed in the back but you feel no pain

**Chapter eight**

"_Stabbed in the back but you feel no pain,"- Salt Skin by Ellie Goulding _

Aria pushed Anthony away and glared at him, her blue eyes full of disbelief. Anthony looked smug, though. His smug smirk was wiped away when Aria slapped him across the face.

"_What the hell?" _he growled at her, anger flooding his gray eyes.

But she was just as pissed as him. "You have some balls, kissing me," she hissed.

Anthony smirked. "But you liked it, though."

Aria raised her knee, making contact with his groin.

Anthony groaned and doubled over. Aria took advantage and kicked him swiftly in the side, causing him to groan with each kick. "First you turn me-" kick. "-Then you turn me into a bloody monster-" kick. Kick. "-Then you flirt with me, constantly, over a fifty year period, until I sleep with you-" kick. Kick. Kick. "-Then you make me fall for you-" kick. Kick. "-And then you abandon me in the middle France, not giving a damn what happened to me." kick. Kick. Kick. Kick. Kick. Kick. Kick. Kick. Kick-

Aria was suddenly pinned against a wall by her throat. "Kick me again, I dare you," Anthony growled, his eyes dark, his voice, rough. He was panting slightly, blood trickling down his face from when Aria's foot made contact with his nose.

She punched him in the eye, causing him to howl in pain. Then Aria kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying into a table, breaking it. "I'm not even mad that you used me for sex and dumped me when you got bored with me. I'm pissed at you because you're the reason I hate myself," she shouted at him, before turning her back on him and walking towards the stairs. "Now get the hell out."

Aria only made it three steps up the stairs, before Anthony grabbed her by the ankle and tossed her at a wall like a rag doll. Aria's body burned with pain when she hit it. She heard bones crack within her and she flinched.

"You little bitch," he growled. Anthony's eyes were full of rage. He was an arrogant man. He liked to have fun, to sleep around and drain bodies. But he was terrifying when he was angry. And Aria had made him really angry.

He stalked forward and yanked Aria up by her blonde hair. She bit back her yelp. "If you _ever _pull that again, I will kill you," he growled, digging his fingers into Aria's skin.

"Screw you," she choked out, gritting her teeth in pain.

Aria cried out as a sickening crack filled the air. Anthony had broken her arm. "Let's get one thing straight, you little slut," he told her, his eyes almost black with rage. Aria gritted her teeth together. "You were delusional, if you thought I wanted you for anything other than sex. Who would want you? The only thing you're good for is for sex."

Aria flinched. No, it wasn't true. He was trying to make her hate herself more than she already did. "You think I'm lying? Aria, you're a bloodthirsty slut of a monster. You know it, I know it, and even your best friend Damon knows it." Anthony dug his nails into Aria's skin one last time, drawing blood, before letting her go.

Aria watched Anthony with dull eyes. She tried not to believe his words, but Anthony always had a way of getting inside her head. A twisted smirk formed on his lips. "And, just so you know, I'm not going anywhere honey. You see, I'm bored and you've always been a good source of entertainment." He then kissed her, his mouth hard and hot against hers. He even bruised her lips.

After he pulled away, Anthony smirked one last time at her before running out of the Salvatore boarding house.

Aria must've sat there, broken and battered, for hours. Eventually, she stood up and made her way up the stairs. She knew of only one person she wanted at that moment, one person who had told her that afternoon that he wasn't there for her like she was for him. now was his chance to redeem himself.

Aria was quiet, her blue eyes dull, dry blood staining her skin and clothes. She looked like she had just been beaten, both physically, mentally, and emotionally, which was what had happened.

Aria crawled into Damon's bed silently, unable to see anything in the dark. Damon stirred as Aria pressed her face into his chest. She just wanted him to hold her. She wanted somebody to tell her that the cruel things Anthony had told her weren't true.

"Aria?" Damon mumbled, waking up. He frowned down at Aria, who was clutching to him as if she was drowning and he was a flotation device. Her blue eyes met his, and then Aria sobbed into his chest.

Damon had no idea what had happened to Aria, but he didn't need to know at that moment. He pushed his almost-sex dream out of his head and wrapped his arms around his best friend. Damon needed to do only one thing at the moment. Hold Aria as she sobbed into his chest.

And that's exactly what he did.

_**~EIATT~**_

"What happened, Ria?"

Aria shook her head insistently. "I don't want to talk about it," she muttered, pulling the blanket over her head.

Damon sighed. "Don't be a stubborn pain the ass, Aria," he told her

"It was nothing, Damon," she told him, closing her eyes. It was the morning after, and Aria's face was still puffy from crying her eyes out.

"No, it wasn't. I wake up in the middle of the night to find you sobbing. That's not nothing. What happened?"

Aria just shook her head and Damon growled in annoyance. "Would it kill you not to be so damn stubborn all the freaking time?"

A pause. Aria nodded, her blonde head bobbing under the blanket. He rolled his eyes and he heard Aria laughed quietly. "I'm glad you find your stubbornness amusing Aria, because I don't," he muttered.

Aria sighed and sat up. "Don't worry about it, Damon, okay? I'm fine. Let's just pretend last night never happened," she said.

Damon wouldn't of minded that. He did, after all, have an almost-sex dream about his best friend. That was definitely something Damon wanted to forget. "Let's go out. We can go on a best friend date. Remember? We used to do that all the time. It was really fun." Aria smiled. She looked like she could use a best friend date.

Damon sighed. "I still think you're a dork for calling it a 'best friend date,'" he muttered.

She frowned. "That's what it is, Damon. two best friends going on a date."

"It's still a lame name." he smirked at her, suddenly desperate to make her smile. Aria's blue eyes were dull, something that worried Damon.

She rolled her eyes, but her pink lips pulled into a smile. "Shut up," she muttered. "So, can we go on a best friend date, then?" she asked.

Damon sighed but nodded. "Fine." At that moment, Damon would do anything to stop Aria from looking so sad.

Her eyes lit up and she got out of bed. "Great!" she exclaimed. "I'll get ready."

Damon watched her run into the bathroom, looking excited and happy. If he had to go on a lame B.F.D to achieve that, he'd do it.

_**~EIATT~**_

Damon decided to go out and get Aria flowers. He wondered why she was so sad, so depressed, but he knew that getting her her favorite flowers- sunflowers- would cheer her up.

Damon stopped in at the Grill to do a shot of bourbon, the bouquet of flowers resting on the bar stool next to him. Across the bar, Damon suddenly saw Anthony. He frowned, watching his best friend's maker down a glass of scotch. It suddenly clicked in his head, why Aria was so depressed.

Anthony.

He narrowed his eyes, just as Anthony looked him. He smirked at Damon before standing up and walking out of the Grill. Damon followed him down an alley. He was going to pay, for hurting his Ria.

As soon as they were alone, Damon had Anthony pinned against a wall. "What did you do to her?" he growled, his blue eyes full of anger.

Anthony pushed him away, narrowing his eyes. "I told her the truth. I told her what a slut she was, what a monster she was."

Pure fury rushed through Damon at that moment. It was Anthony's fault, that Aria hated herself, thought herself a monster. He created her, taught her everything she knew, let her slaughter hundreds of innocents. It was also him who told her what a monster she was multiple times. It was all Anthony's fault.

Damon punched him in the jaw, causing him to slam into the ground. "You stay the hell away from her," he told him in a dark voice. "If you don't, I'll kill you."

Anthony laughed like he had heard the funniest joke of his life. "You're protective of her, aren't you?" Damon didn't answer. "Don't be. Let me tell you, your sweet Ria isn't nearly as perfect as you think her to be."

Damon frowned at Anthony, barely having time to furrow his eyebrows before he was gone. He sighed again, confused by his words. Of course he knew that Aria wasn't perfect. And that was half of the reason he loved her so much.

Damon just sighed and shook his head. He wouldn't let Anthony try to change his perception of Aria.

Besides, he had a beautiful blonde girl to take on a date.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: Ally-Woods-rox, SomebodyWhoCares, and Katerina The Von for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	10. i walk in a field with wings

**Chapter nine**

"_I walk in a field with wings,"- With Wings by Amy Stroup_

When Damon returned to the boarding house, the first thing he heard was the roar of a hairdryer coming from his bathroom. He sighed, impatient. Aria took forever and a day to get ready.

"I was hoping we could go out this century, Ria," he shouted casually over the roar, knowing that she could hear him.

"I'm almost ready!" she shouted back. "Just give me five minutes!"

Twenty minutes later, Aria walked down the stairs. Damon groaned and got off of the couch. "Finally," he said. "You were supposed to be ready fifteen min-"

His eyes widened at the sight of his best friend. Aria had put in more effort than usual to look good. She didn't just look good, either. Aria looked hot. Sexy. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Aria looked beautiful.

Her makeup had been applied with a careful hand, meant to accent her lips, highlight her cheekbones, and make her eyes pop. Her golden locks were in perfect corkscrew curls, not a hair out of place. Her big blue eyes were framed with full, dark lashes, making them stand out even more than usual. She wore a simple white dress with spaghetti straps. It fell to her knees, exposing her long, tan legs, and it flattered her curves. All in all, Aria looked drop dead gorgeous. She looked like an angel in Damon's eyes.

Still, Aria looked self-conscious as she shifted uncomfortably and tugged at the fragile fabric her dress was made out of. Aria was usually pretty comfortable in her own skin. After living almost five hundred years, she learned to accept her body and not worry about her flaws. But after Anthony's words to her last night, her confidence had been shaken. That was why she had tried so hard to look her best- she wanted to prove to herself that she was beautiful, that her only flaws were on the inside, not the outside. Aria tried so hard to look beautiful because she needed to _feel _beautiful.

"What?" she frowned and fidgeted. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is my makeup smudged? Is my dress too slutty? I _knew _my shade of lipstick was too red-"

"Stop." Damon shook his head, more to clear it than to stop Aria from spending another hour getting ready. "We're going now, Aria. You're not going to redo your makeup twenty seven times. You look fine."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Fine" was not what Aria wanted to hear. Still, Damon had never had much patience when it came to Aria dolling herself up. "Fine," she said gruffly. "Let's go, Mister Impatient."

Damon forgot how to think while looking at Aria. His brain was shut off, numbed by her beauty. He lost his breath, and his heart would've been racing if it still worked. His best friend shouldn't of affected him as much as she did.

"I got you something." Damon managed to tear his gaze away from her long enough to register the bouquet of sunflowers in his hand.

Aria's big blue eyes widened and she beamed. "For me?" she asked, her favorite flowers brightening her up.

"No, for my other best friend," Damon said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at her stupid question.

"Alaric?" Aria smirked slightly as she took the bright yellow flowers.

He rolled his eyes again. "Oh, come on Damon, you two have a bromance thing going on. Don't worry, 'I'm not jealous. You need as many friends as you can get," she said lightly.

"Whatever, Ria." Damon offered her his arm, and she took it with a smile. "At least Ric won't make me take him on lame best friend dates."

Aria rolled her eyes. "I know you like going on these things as much as I do, Damon. So don't try to pretend that this is a hardship on your part." They walked outside, to Damon's Camaro, and he opened her door for her.

"You look absolutely stunning by the way," Damon said casually. "As if it isn't obvious."

Aria blushed as she slid into the passenger seat. This, a best friend date, was exactly what she needed.

_**~EIATT~**_

"So, am I allowed to ask about what really happened last night?"

Damon raised an eyebrow at Aria from across the table. She tore her bread stick apart, peeling the hard crust away to reveal the soft, warm bread inside. She sighed and took a sip of her red wine before speaking.

"Anthony stopped by and… and he said some not-so nice things," she muttered.

Damon's face darkened. "I knew he had something to do with it." He decided it unwise to mention his run in with the jackass a few hours ago. He finally got Aria back to normal, he didn't want her to crawl back into her depressed shell.

But Aria seemed to want to talk about Anthony. "Don't you want to know about my past with Anthony?" she asked, picking at her steak. Aria, although she was girly, liked to eat. She wasn't a salad, veggie freak. She liked to eat meat. The waitress gave her a dirty look, as if Aria had personally offended her, when Aria ordered enough food to feed several grown men. Damon merely chuckled and ordered the same. He liked that Aria knew how to eat. It was another thing he loved about her.

Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She shrugged. "Not really, but I think you deserve to know. I want you to know."

"Then, by all means…" Damon gestured for her to tell her story. Aria took a deep breath and a big gulp of her wine.

"Anthony and I traveled for few centuries together after he changed me. That was when I was the worst version of myself. I don't blame Anthony for what I did, though. Sure, he taught me everything I knew about killing, and pushed me to kill as many as possible, but my actions are my own. I am responsible for them alone." Aria ran a hand through her hair, mussing up her perfect curls.

"Every day Anthony and I were together, he flirted with me, tried to sleep with me. Eventually, I gave in. We slept together for a few decades, and, eventually, I convinced myself that I loved him. And then Anthony ditched me in Rome when my feelings became 'too difficult to deal with.'" She rolled her eyes, feeling resentment boil in her stomach. "But, it turned out to be a good thing. I'd still be running around, tearing out throats if Anthony hadn't let me." She smiled slightly and swallowed a piece of steak.

Damon's eyes were dark. "You were in love with him?" the idea of Aria being with that jackass, sleeping with him, loving him, made Damon want to break something, made him want to kill something.

She shrugged. "More or less."

"What does that mean?" Damon demanded, looking irritable.

Aria narrowed her eyes at him. "It means that I wouldn't trust anything I felt before the 1700's. I blocked most of those centuries out anyway. The blood, the death, it'd drive any sane person crazy."

"Do you still love him, though?" Damon couldn't control the jealousy he felt, the possessiveness. He couldn't stop it and he couldn't control it.

Aria felt her temper rising. "Would you love a person who called you a murdering slut? A monster? A whore?" she exclaimed, causing people from surrounding tables to look curiously at them. "Take a picture, it'll last longer!" she snapped, and the humans looked hastily away.

"What did Anthony call you?" Damon asked in a low voice, his eyes glinting dangerously.

Aria sighed and took a deep breath. "It doesn't matter, Damon. Let's just go. I'm not hungry anymore."

"Is that why you were so depressed? Because you actually _believed _him?" Damon's eyes widened. He knew he was right.

"Let's just go," she repeated, standing up.

"He wasn't Aria." Damon looked at his best friend thoughtfully, his eyes full of a deep emotion neither could place. "You're not a slut. You're not a monster either. I just wish you'd see that."

Damon stood up then and tossed a few bills on the table. "Come on, let's go," he muttered, handing Aria her jacket. She took it, frowning slightly. They never really talked about Aria's self-loathing. This was the first time Damon ever really openly acknowledged it, and he had been really passionate about it as well.

Sometimes, Aria wished she'd realize she wasn't a monster too.

_**~EIATT~**_

They didn't talk the entire ride home. As soon as they got back the boarding house, Aria ran up to the bedroom and washed off her hours of hard work. She took a long, hot bubble bath, then changed into comfortable pajamas with ducks on them.

Aria was just going to crash in one of the many guest bedrooms in the house, but Damon was waiting for her on his bed. Aria didn't spare him a glance, and walked straight towards the door, but he stopped her. "Aria, wait!"

She sighed and turned to face Damon. "Yeah?" she muttered, a beat of water running down the back of her neck.

"We need to talk," he said firmly, standing up and walking towards her.

"About what?" she crossed her arms over her chest and watched her best friend carefully.

Damon surprised her by taking her face in his hands. "I don't know what I can do to make you see how good you are, Ria," he said softly. "You're not a monster. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Aria gasped slightly, her heart melting. "You don't know my past, Damon," she murmured.

"I know that, deep down, you're not a bad person. You're a great person, a great friend. And I need you, Ria. I need you," Damon told her honestly.

That was the first time he had ever said those words out loud. Aria looked up at him, eyes wide. "Really?" she smiled slightly, allowing herself to think them true.

He nodded. "I love you, Aria."

Aria knew that Damon loved her as a friend, but somehow, she knew that wasn't how he meant those words. Her eyes widened even more. Her throat closed up. She could speak, breathe, or think.

Damon's lips came in contact with hers, his calloused hands still holding her face. Slowly, her blue eyes fell closed as she allowed herself to enjoy the moment.

"It really is too easy to get inside your head."

Aria gasped, her eyes flying open. She choked on some water, and sat up. She was still in the bathtub, soapy bubble surrounding her. It had been just a dream. It hadn't happened. It wasn't real.

Anthony smirked at Aria, his eyes wandering down her naked body. She crossed her arms over her chest to hide her breasts. He rolled his eyes at her. "Nothing I haven't seen before, Aria. Besides, they're not even that impressive."

Aria narrowed her eyes at him. "Go to hell," she told him. "And while you're there, why don't you do me a favor and burn too?"

Anthony rolled his eyes again and walked towards the door. "I was just in the neighborhood and decided to stop by. I saw that you were asleep, and I just _had _to take advantage and check out what's in that pretty little head of yours." He smirked again. "In love with your best friend. That must be rough."

"Get. Out," she snarled at him, glaring.

He raised his hands in surrender. "I'm leaving, I'm leaving."

Anthony left Aria, and she sighed and sunk down into the bubbles again. Oh, how she wished her dream had been real.

Anthony paused outside the living room to see Damon drinking a glass of bourbon and staring into a fire. He smirked to himself. He wasn't going to tell Damon about Aria's feelings just yet- it'd be more fun to just watch that situation play out by itself- but that didn't mean he couldn't cause a little chaos while he was there.

"So," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Do you still think Aria's perfect?"

Damon turned around and growled at him. But before he could attack, Anthony said quickly, "Why don't you ask Ria about Antonio?"

Damon frowned, confused. Anthony smirked one last time before disappearing. Damon wasn't focused on him, though.

Why would Anthony want Damon to ask Aria about her dead brother?

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: SomebodyWhoCares, Katerina The Von, roseyv5, TVDDamonSLover for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	11. i'll carry you home tonight

**Chapter ten**

"_I'll carry you home tonight,"- We Are Young by Fun featuring Janelle Monae_

_1569_

_France_

_Aria kicked her blood stained dress aside, then stood still as the servant girl undid her corset. She let out a sigh of relief, finally able to breathe again. As the servant girl turned to leave, Aria grabbed her arm._

"_Yes, my lady?" the young girl didn't meet Aria's eyes, and she smirked to herself. She liked the affect she had on the servants of the house she and Anthony were staying at. Even though they were all compelled, they were still intimidated by her. It's like their natural instincts told them to fear her._

_She loved it. She loved being the predator that humans feared._

"_Come here," she ordered, her voice haughty. The girl approached her slowly, cautiously. Her brown eyes were wary, and Aria knew that the servant girl knew what she was. _All the more fun for me,_ she thought. _

_The suspense was the best part to the predator and the worst part to the prey. The prey could do nothing but wait for the predator to attack. They just had to wait, their mind creating possible scenarios of what might happen, messing with them. Their hearts beat wildly, fear seeping into them. The suspense did almost as much damage to the prey as the predator did. The suspense was just as lethal to the prey as the predator._

_The servant girl's big brown eyes were swimming in fear, her heart pumping her warm, sweet blood throughout her body. Aria just stared at her, waiting while the suspense tore the poor human apart. She smirked to herself. Nothing cured boredom like killing an innocent._

"_W-what did you want, my lady?" the young girl stuttered, her voice giving away the fear her eyes and pounding heart did not._

_Aria smirked again, her blue eyes darkening to crimson, the veins darkening underneath. And then, the most foreboding part of her transformation into the monster she was, her fangs were exposed. The long, white teeth was the only weapon Aria needed, the most deadly weapon she could have._

_The servant girl's eyes widened, and a piercing scream fell from her lips. She turned to sprint away, but Aria easily blocked her path to the door. She gripped her prey roughly, then sunk her fangs into the servant's smooth, white neck._

_After about fifteen seconds or so, the girl fell limp in Aria's grip, and her veins went dry. Aria dropped the body then wiped her mouth clean on the back of her hand. She looked down to find her corset splattered with blood and she sighed. The only downside to being a predator were than you tended to stain your clothes._

_Aria kicked the dead servant into the corner, like she was important as the stained dress on the floor next to her. then she started to undress, wanting nothing more than to burn the body of the servant she had killed and then to go to bed._

"_Well, I guess I showed up at the right time."_

_Aria yanked her dress back up, covering her bare breasts from Anthony's eyes. she turned around and glared at her maker, who was lounging on her bed, smirking._

"_What are you doing?" she hissed at him._

"_Enjoying the view," he retorted, his eyes wandering up and down her body._

_She sighed and pushed her blonde hair out of her face. "I am in no mood for you, Anthony. Leave," she told him._

_He ignored her and looked at the dead body on her floor. "I see that you had dinner without me." he fake pouted._

_Aria rolled her eyes. "More like a midnight snack." She frowned at the servant. "What was her name again? Gabriella? Claudette?" _

"_Does it matter, Ria? She was a servant, irrelevant in a pool of irrelevant humans." He frowned at her. "Why are you even asking? You never cared before." _

_She shook her head. "I don't care, it's just-" she cut herself off. Lately, she had been thinking about her family, the great Moretti clan, vampire hunters for centuries. And she had become the predator they hunted. What did her family think of her? her ancestors, who might have been the first hunters to ever exist? They probably loathed her for disgracing the family name with her darkness, her evilness._

_Lately, she had been thinking about the lives she had taken. Aria had turned off her humanity- one of the first things she did as a vampire. Caring was not an advantage, not as a vampire. Feeling the guilt that came with taking lives would only weigh her down._

_Still, lately Aria had been thinking about the people she had killed. What were their names? Did they have families? Children? Parents? Husbands? Wives? Friends? Lovers? Did people love them? Care about them? Even poor Gabriella/Claudette, somebody had to have loved her. She had to have affected somebody's life in some way._

_Anthony was suddenly in front of her. "Don't think about them, Aria," he told her in a low voice, his eyes meeting hers. "They don't matter, humans. They exist only to feed us and entertain us. We, vampires, are better than them."_

_Usually, Aria would have agreed. But now she was tempted to say "Are we?" How did being a vampire make you better than humans? If anything, it made you worse. It made you a monster._

_As if sensing Aria's thoughts, Anthony quickly said, "It's just your hunter heritage getting to you, Ria. We _are _better than them. Don't ever think differently."_

_Aria sighed but nodded. Anthony was right. Of course he was right. Aria was foolish to believe otherwise. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't even notice Anthony pulling her strap down her bare shoulder until his cold hands came in contact with her warm skin._

_Usually, Aria would have glared, pulled away, and slapped him. But now, Aria was too tired to fight back. Her thoughts were wearing her down, Anthony's constant advances were wearing her down. It was just so much easier, giving in. Fighting required energy and passion, two things Aria didn't have any longer._

_Her warm lips met his, and Aria allowed Anthony to push her down onto her bed and remove her dress. That was the first time of many times that they had sex._

_**~EIATT~**_

Things between Damon and Aria were tense. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since their semi-failed best friend date. Aria was busy worrying about if Anthony was going to tell Damon about her feelings, and Damon was busy thinking about Aria's brother, Antonio. What had Aria done to him?

Finally, Aria had had enough of the tension in the boarding house. She decided that she needed air, and went on a walk in town. People looked at her as she walked in the cool air, some staring. In a small town like Mystic Falls, a new person stuck out like a sore thumb. Everybody knew everybody here.

As Aria walked, her thoughts drifted from Damon to Anthony to her family, of all things. Aria rarely thought of her family. They had been vampire hunters, though Aria hadn't known that until after she died. Her mother had died giving birth to her, leaving her father heartbroken. He had been distant to Aria because of that. She always thought that he blamed her for it.

Antonio, her brother, had been very important to her. They had been close, but sometimes Aria felt like he resented her for being born. He had doted on their mother, and if Aria had never been born, she would still be alive. But birthing complications was nothing new in the 16th century, when Aria had been born.

To escape her thoughts, Aria went inside the Mystic Grill for a shot of whiskey. There, she found Alaric, resident vampire hunter, semi-retired. She grabbed her drink and then sat down next to him.

She offered him a smile. "Remember me? I'm Aria. We met for a few minutes a few days ago."

He nodded. "How could I forget? Damon actually has a friend."

She laughed and took a sip of her drink. "You're his friend," she reminded him.

Ric made a face, but before he could deny it, Aria continued. "I just wanted to thank you, for being there for him, which I don't doubt you were. Damon needs somebody to watch over him, he's a little kid like that. If he doesn't, he'll get into even more trouble than he usually does. So, thank you."

Alaric was silent for a few moments. "You're welcome, I guess." He took a sip of his own drink. "You really care about him, don't you?" he added after a minute or two of silence.

Aria smiled slightly. "He's all I have, as sad as that sounds. He's my best friend." She finished her shot of whiskey then signaled for another. "So, how does one befriend a vampire when being a hunter?"

Ric laughed slightly. "I'm a bad hunter," he told her, and she smiled.

"I can't say I'm any better than you. I came from a family of hunters," she told him. "The Moretti clan, killing the creatures of the night for centuries."

He raised his eyebrows. "that must be awkward at family reunions."

She laughed again. "I didn't know that they were hunters until I died. My mother had died giving birth to me, my father… well, I killed my father. And my brother…" she shook her head. Antonio was complicated.

Alaric was silent. "So, you're family's dysfunctional," he said finally.

She nodded. "That's one way of putting it."

They talked and drank for a few more hours, and Aria found that she liked Ric. He was a good drinking buddy, and it was good for Damon to have a friend other than herself. Feeling buzzed, Aria stood up. "I really should be getting home," she said.

"Wait," Alaric said before she could leave. It might have been because of the liquor, but the words fell from Alaric's lips without any thought at all. "Do you love Damon?"

Aria stiffened, eyes widening. How the hell did he know? "Do you?" she retorted, blue eyes still wide.

Alaric's eyebrows furrowed. "What kind of comeback is that?"

She sighed and ran a hand through her golden curls. "Damon and I are just friends. Always have been and always will be. If I had feelings for Damon, not only would I be risking our friendship, but I would be putting myself through personal torture," she said, telling the truth.

"You didn't say no, Aria," Ric pointed out.

"I know," she said quietly, before grabbing her jacket. "It was nice drinking with you, Ric."

By the time Aria got back to the boarding house, it was dark outside. She walked into the living room to find Damon waiting for her, a glass of bourbon in his hand.

"Where were you?" he asked, his voice a little cool. Things were still tense between them, and they both hated that.

"At the Grill," she said casually, taking off her jacket. "Drinking with Ric. He's a good guy."

"Yeah, I guess he is." Damon watched her carefully as she sat down on the couch, crossing her legs. "Can I ask you something, Ria?"

"Of course, Damon," she said, eyebrows furrowing. "Anything. Always."

"Can you tell me about Antonio?"

Aria's eyebrows furrowed even more in confusion. "Antonio? My brother? Why do you want to know about him?"

Damon shrugged. "Just curious," he lied. If he mentioned that Anthony told him to ask her about her brother, he'd never know what Anthony wanted him to know. "What happened to him?"

Aria took a deep breath. Antonio was complicated. She could tell Damon the truth- she was supposed to, they were best friends- and they already got into a fight about Aria not telling him everything. But if Damon knew the truth, he'd think of Aria differently. He would think less of her.

So, despite what Aria knew about friendship requiring honesty and trust, she lied straight to Damon's face.

"He's dead, Damon," she told him, as if it should've been obvious. "He died of old age centuries ago. He got married and had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Hell, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great nieces and nephews are probably still running around Italy somewhere."

Damon eyed her. "Honest?"

She nodded. "Of course, Damon."

But Damon knew when Aria was lying, like when she knew he was lying to her. He didn't say anything, though. But both could practically feel her lie stretching them farther apart. Even though Damon didn't know the truth yet, it was still pulling them apart. And that was exactly what Anthony wanted.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: David Fishwick, SomebodyWhoCares, Katerina The Von, Stefanie, and TVDDamonSLover for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	12. where no one knows my name

**Chapter eleven**

"_Where no one knows my name,"- Boston by Augustana_

Aria stared into her mirror, studying her features. She took in her blue eyes and her clear skin. Her blonde hair hung in curls down her back. Aria studied her face, not in a narcissistic way, in a way a science student would study a model of the human skeletal system.

To anyone else, she looked like a normal young woman in her early twenties. Maybe she was in college, studying to become a teacher or a lawyer or a doctor. Maybe she had a boyfriend, a fiancé, a family. She was pretty, yes, and normal looking. She could be anybody to strangers. Which only supported the fact that you can't judge people just by the way they looked.

In reality, Aria was a four hundred and eighty eight year old vampire. She had blood on her hands, coating her skin, caked under her nails. She had taken many lives and she liked it. She was a monster, this seemingly normal girl. She wasn't in college, she wasn't studying to become a teacher or a lawyer or a doctor. She didn't have a boyfriend or a fiancé. Her family was dead, gone, and she was the sole reason for that.

To strangers, she looked like a normal young woman with her whole future ahead of her. To herself, Aria looked like an old vampire with a tarnished, ruined soul, damned to an eternity of her own personal hell on earth.

An old vampire who lied to her best friend in the entire world for petty reasons.

Aria sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She turned away from her mirror and walked into the spare bedroom she had inhabited. Ever since she and Damon had begun their quiet game that had been going on for days, she had moved from his bed into a guest bedroom. Even now, Aria rarely saw him. She didn't know where he was, for she spent most of her time alone in her bedroom.

Aria laid down in her bed, not feeling tired in the slightest. She missed her best friend. He was only a few bedrooms away, and she could hear him breathing if she was quiet enough, yet Aria felt farther away from her than she had ever been. She was lying to him, and he knew it too. She missed how uncomplicated things used to be. Anthony had tried to ruin them, and he was succeeding.

Aria stared into the darkness that surrounded her, and it suddenly felt heavy, as if it was a tangible thing. She had a hard time breathing, as if the tangible darkness was suffocating her. Aria quickly flashed from the room, needing air. She breathed heavily as soon as she was in the hallway, one hand on the doorway for support.

Aria's eyes flickered over to Damon's bedroom. An even stronger craving to be with him overcame her. She knew it was, since she had been lying to him about Antonio, but Aria just needed to be in Damon's arms. She needed him to comfort her, to tell her that the darkness couldn't suffocate her, that she was just going crazy. She needed him to crack some inappropriate, offending jokes about her belonging in the loony bin, for imagining the darkness choking her, not allowing her to breath.

She just needed her best friend.

Aria slowly pushed open Damon's bedroom door, the creak sounding like thunder in the dead darkness. Her eyes found Damon's still form on his bed, and she almost thought that he was sleeping. But Damon's breathing wasn't deep and even like a sleeping person's would be. He was still awake.

"Damon?" her voice sounded quiet and self-conscious, like a little kid's.

"Yeah?"

Aria played with her daylight necklace, her eyes wandering around his room, even though she couldn't make out a thing in the dark. "Are you awake?"

She could practically hear his eyes roll. "No, I'm sleep talking to you. Dumbass."

Despite the fact that he had been insulting her, Damon's words made Aria smile. That was something old Damon would have said to her. it meant that things could still be the same between them, before Anthony and lies about her big brother.

"What do you want, Ria?" his nickname for her was another good sign, and it gave Aria courage.

"Can I…?" she trailed off, but he knew what she wanted.

He patted the spot next to him. "Hop in."

In a blur, Aria was tucked into the spot in Damon's bed next to him. They didn't touch, but Aria already felt better being in Damon's room with him. The air was thin here, breathable. Plus, having Damon around always made her feel safer, more protected.

There was silence between the two. There was still tension between them, some of it sexual tension that Aria had always noticed but that Damon was just beginning to pick up on. All he could think about was how long Aria's legs looked in the plaid boxer shorts she was wearing for pajama bottoms. All Aria could think about was how glad she was Damon rarely buttoned up his shirts, leaving his sculpted chest exposed for the whole world to see.

IF the two hadn't been best friends, they would have jumped each other's bones already.

"What's wrong Aria?" Damon asked finally.

She sighed and ran a hand through her curls. "You're going to think I'm crazy."

"I already do." She could barely make out his smirk in the dark.

Aria rolled her eyes. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." She cleared her throat. "I felt like I couldn't breathe in my room, like the darkness was going to suffocate if I didn't get out."

Seconds passed. "You're right, that does make me think you're crazy," he said finally.

"Told you so." Aria rolled over onto her side so that she was facing him. Damon watched her carefully. Then slowly, ever so slowly, he raised a hand and gently brushed his fingers over Aria's cheek. She closed her eyes, feeling calm and at peace at that moment.

"I know you're lying to me, Aria."

She stiffened, but didn't bother to open her eyes. Damon continued, his voice low and quiet. "You have a tell. Whenever you're lying, you push a piece of hair behind your ear."

Aria didn't know how to respond. "You know me too well," she said finally.

"Why would lie to me, Aria? What could you have possibly done that was so terrible you had to lie about it? To me, of all people. I'm a lot of things, Ria, but judgmental isn't one of them." Damon wished she say something, anything. But Aria just remained quiet. If anything, it made him angrier.

"I- I didn't want you to think less of me, Damon. I didn't want you to think me a monster," she said quietly, eyes still closed.

It was almost ironic, how Aria thought herself to be a monster, but she couldn't stand it if Damon thought that. "Well, I think less of you for lying than I ever would have for whatever you did to your brother," he replied rather coldly, before flipping over onto his other side, so that his back was to Aria. The conversation was over.

She sighed and then got out of bed. She made her way to the front door rather slowly, willing herself to just tell Damon the truth. But nothing came out of her mouth. When she reached the door, she stopped. "Goodnight, Damon," she whispered. Then she walked out of the room.

Aria left Damon's bedroom feeling worse than she had when she entered it.

_**~EIATT~**_

Aria sat alone at a table at the Mystic Grill. She sipped her coffee, every now and then slipping some liquor into it to make it Irish. Why couldn't she just be completely honest with Damon? he was completely honest with her. Why couldn't she just tell him what had happened with Antonio?

"Aria? Right?"

Aria looked up from her coffee to meet big brown eyes. Elena, she thought her name was. The doppelganger of Katherine. She looked kindly down at her.

Aria nodded slowly. "Yeah…" she took a sip of her spiked drink. "Hi Elena."

She smiled at her. "Hi." Then Elena frowned. "Are you okay? You don't look too good. Plus, you reek of alcohol and it's ten in the morning."

Aria shrugged. "It's five o'clock somewhere."

Elena cracked a smile. "Do you think you could use some girl time? Caroline, Bonnie, and I were just about to go shopping. There's some Founder's event tonight. Do you want to come?"

Aria frowned. She didn't have girl friends. She didn't go shopping that often, because Damon refused to go with her. But maybe some girl time shopping was exactly what she needed. Maybe it would help her.

"I don't want to intrude…" she said, pushing her half empty coffee cup away.

"You're not," Elena said quickly.

Aria nodded slowly. "If you're sure."

Elena smiled. "It'll be fun, trust me."

Aria smiled back. "Then I'd love to."

_**~EIATT~**_

The shopping trip had been exactly what Aria had needed. She had bonded with both Caroline and Elena, and had managed to put up with Bonnie's judgy witch crap. She had bought a dress that looked amazing on her, and she had let Caroline talk her into going to this Founder's event- there would be free booze there.

When Aria returned to the boarding house, it was empty. So she dressed and did her makeup while listening to music loud enough that everyone in Mystic Falls could probably hear the song. She was in such a good mood, bouncing around the boarding house half naked. She felt lighter than she had in days.

Aria showed up at the Founding Family event wearing a killer red dress with her normally curly hair pin straight. She felt confident, walking through the crowd of people in search of a waiter with free alcohol. She waved at Elena and Caroline. She was glad that they had talked her into coming to the event.

She took a sip from a glass of champagne and looked around the room in search of a familiar face. Then her eyes met blue ones, icy blue eyes that were glued to her. She raised her glass to Damon and offered him a half smile, before turning her back to him and walking towards Elena and Caroline.

Despite the fact that Damon was mad at her for lying, he couldn't take his eyes off of Aria. She looked _stunning. _He mentally shook himself. This was Aria. Crazy, self-loathing, stubborn, buzz killing and all his.

Damon's eyes widened when he realized the harsh truth.

He was attracted to his best friend.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: David Fishwick, Samantha meyers, TVDDamonSLover, Stefanie, SomebodyWhoCares, and Katerina The Von for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	13. loving you forever can't be wrong

**Chapter twelve**

"_Loving you forever can't be wrong,"- Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey _

It seemed so, so wrong to Damon. He was _attracted _to his _best friend. _That had to be illegal. It had to be like incest, being attracted to your best friend. Of course, it wasn't. Normal, human relationships started like this all the time. They started off as friendships then eventually evolved into love. That thought hit Damon even harder. He couldn't be _in love _with Aria, could he? No, that was so much worse. He was just physically attracted to her. He just wanted to sleep with her, that was all.

Damon was going to hell.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face. What was the best way to deal with his newfound knowledge? Was there even a best way to deal with your revelation that you're attracted to your best friend? Still, Damon couldn't even think about telling Aria. What would she do? Hit him? Be mortified? Disgusted? Run away? Make it so she'd never see him again?

Damon couldn't handle any of those possibilities.

It might have been the worst thing Damon could have done, but he decided that the safest way to deal with his attraction to ignore it, to pretend that it wasn't there. He'd act like he wasn't attracted to Aria and hope that it'd eventually go away on its own. He'd sleep around with women more often, too. It would help his attraction to Aria go away, he was sure of it.

His gaze traveled over to Aria, talking to Elena and Caroline with a small smile on her lips. She was making friends. Damon supposed that he was glad she was making more friends besides him, but he couldn't help but be a little possessive. Aria was his best friend and he was hers. It had been that way for a long time and he hoped that some doppelganger and vampire Barbie wouldn't change that. He hoped that his uncalled for attraction wouldn't ruin that.

Aria's blue eyes met his, and she offered him another sad smile. But instead of walking over to join her, he just nodded and trained his gaze on a pretty, young redheaded woman. Then Damon took the first steps towards what he thought would cure him of his attraction towards Aria.

Aria frowned, trying her hardest not to watch Damon flirt with a random redhead. Jealousy flared up inside her, and she gritted her teeth. The worst part was that Damon would take that girl home, and then she'd have to suffer through listening to them going at it.

"Aria? Are you okay?"

Aria looked up, startled, at her newfound friends. She nodded and offered them a smile that came out more as a grimace. "I'm fine," she lied. Because it was so much easier to say "I'm fine"- the biggest lie ever told- than to explain to Elena and Caroline the truth. That she was in love with her best friend, the same one she was lying to about probably the worst thing she had done in her entire existence.

"You don't look fine," Caroline pointed out.

"I'm fine." Aria repeated. "Just… tired, I guess."

They didn't seem to buy her words, but Aria was already muttering a "see you guys later" and walking away, towards a waiter carrying a tray of champagne. The only way she was going to make it through the long night to come, she needed to be drunk. Very drunk.

"Ria, you look hot."

Aria sighed. Of course Anthony would be here. She could never have a moment of peace without him bothering her. "Go. Away," she deadpanned, grabbing her champagne and walking away.

"Ah, Ria. Don't be like that." He followed her, never letting Aria get farther than a foot in front of him. "Dance with me."

"I'd rather rot in hell for all of eternity, but thanks anyway," she said sarcastically, finishing her glass of champagne quickly.

"Let me rephrase," Anthony said. "Either you dance with me, or I'll start killing." His gaze trailed over to Caroline and Elena. "Hmm, the brunette looks tasty. What was her name? Elena?"

Aria sighed and set down herb empty glass. "Fine. One dance. Then you leave me alone for the rest of the night."

"Deal." He grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the makeshift dance floor. Aria rested one hand on Anthony's shoulder, the other one joining his hand. Anthony rested a hand on her waist, trailing down towards her ass every now and then.

"Now, is this so bad, Ria?" he asked her.

"Yes," she said, her gaze lingering around the room. "It's complete torture, Anthony."

He sighed. "You're so overdramatic."

"I'm honest," she retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"Why are you so mean to me?" he whined.

Aria narrowed her eyes at him. Was he seriously asking her that? "If I told you every single reason, we'd be here all night," she said dryly. "But, trust me; I'm not mean to you without reason."

Anthony sighed again but didn't say anything else, just slowly spun them around the dance floor. After a few silent minutes, Aria decided to ask, "Why are you here, Anthony?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "For you, Ria. We've gone through this before."

She glared at him. "You're like freaking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," she muttered. "Either you hate me or you want me. Pick a side, Anthony."

"You didn't let me finish, Aria," he said casually. "I'm here for you. Whether I'm here to ruin you or to win you back, I haven't decided. It depends on my mood."

It seemed like Anthony was currently in a mood to try to win her back. Their last two meetings, when he had called her horrible things, made her second guess everything about herself, and driven a wedge between her and Damon, he had been trying to ruin her.

He was so bipolar.

"Who do you think I am, Anthony?" she asked him, matching his pleasantly casual tone. "What kind of woman do you think I am? The kind that would fall for the man who told he she was a monster, a slut, a whore? I don't think so. So you can try to win me back until the joyous day you finally die, but I will _never _go back to you. Never."

He was silent as he processed her words. "Well, that's why I always have ruining you as a backup plan," he said, his voice growing colder but still casual. "And, lucky you, I have the perfect idea on how to break you and Damon up for good."

Aria frowned as he pulled away from her. "It was nice to dance with you, Ria," he said pleasantly. "We'll be in touch."

Aria watched warily as Anthony walked away from her. What did he have planned?

_**~EIATT~**_

Aria stared into the fire in the living room of the boarding house, a glass of bourbon in her hand. She had her ear phones in, listening to _Florence + the Machine _louder than necessary. She was trying to drown the out the moans and groans and screams coming from Damon's bedroom.

When the finally subsided, Aria turned off her music, but didn't move from her spot on the couch. She didn't want to return to her bedroom. It made her claustrophobic at night, like the darkness was going to suffocate. She couldn't breathe, let alone sleep in that room.

"Aria? What are you doing down here?"

Stefan took a spot next to her, frowning slightly at his brother's best friend. "Just drinking," she said, trying her best to smile reassuringly. She couldn't manage it.

Stefan frowned at her longer, before finally looking away. "I'm sorry, Aria," he said suddenly.

Aria's eyebrows furrowed, and she looked at Stefan. "Why would you be sorry?" she asked him, confused.

"Because you're in love with my brother."

Aria stiffened, opened her mouth to deny his accusation, then sighed and hung her head, defeated. "How'd you know?" she asked quietly.

"No offense Aria, but you're not the best at hiding it," Stefan told her. "I figured it out the first time I met you. You'd do anything for him, so much that it crosses the line of friendship. And the way you look at him, you can just see it in your eyes how much you love him."

Aria smiled slightly and closed her eyes. "I'm starting to think that the only person who doesn't know I love Damon is Damon."

"That's probably true."

Aria sighed and ran a hand through her messy hair. "Do I even have to ask you not to tell Damon?"

Stefan smiled softly, sadly at her. "You're secret's safe with me."

As Stefan stood up and walked away, Aria closed her eyes and rested her chin on her knees. She needed to get better at hiding her feelings, or else one of these days, it would be Damon confronting her about her feelings for him.

_**~EIATT~**_

"Aria?"

Aria groaned and sat up. She had fallen asleep on the couch, and was paying for it. Her neck and back were aching with pain. She ran a hand over her face and looked up at her best friend, only wearing boxers. She noticed dried blood in the corner of his mouth, and guessed that he had fed off of the girl he had brought home last night. Hopefully, she wasn't dead.

"Ugh, hi," she mumbled, shielding her eyes from the sun.

Aria stood up and made her way into the kitchen to get some coffee. Damon followed her. "Uh, I think we need to talk," he said awkwardly.

Aria stiffened. Talk about what? The same thing she and Stefan had talked about last night?

"Where's the girl?" she asked suddenly, desperate for a change in topic.

Damon's eyebrows furrowed. "What girl?"

"The girl you brought home last night? the screamer?" she said in a dull voice. She didn't really care what happened to her- the redhead was a slut in Aria's books. But that was just out of petty jealousy.

Comprehension dawned on Damon's face. "Oh, I compelled her and sent her home hours ago." Aria nodded and poured herself a cup of coffee. "Can you tell me what you're lying to me about, Aria?"

She sighed. "Damon…"

"If you don't, you might as well leave, because things are going to keep getting worse and worse between us," Damon pointed out.

She sighed again. "It's bad, Damon. It's easily the worst thing I did my entire existence. Mostly because I did it to my own brother."

Damon's expression softened. "I promise, it won't change my opinion of you. I've probably done worse."

Aria just added cream to her coffee. Damon sighed. "What did you do, Ria? Kill him?"

Aria closed her eyes and took a sip of her coffee. "No, worse."

Damon's eyebrows furrowed. What could have Aria done that was worse than killing her vampire hunting brother?

"I'll get dressed and then I'll take you out for breakfast," Damon said finally. "Maybe waffles will make you talk."

As Damon walked out of the kitchen, Aria sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. She had to tell Damon, she realized. Maybe waffles would help her get the truth out.

Her eyebrows furrowed suddenly when Aria heard a noise coming from the living room. "Damon?" she called, walking slowly out of the kitchen and into the living room.

It was empty, though. Aria's eyebrows furrowed even more and she was sure that she was going crazy. Then a scream of pain escaped Aria when a stake was shoved roughly into her stomach.

When Damon heard Aria scream, he immediately ran down to the living room. "Aria!" his blue eyes were full of concern as he looked for his best friend. He found her on her knees, a stake protruding out of her stomach. A man, a familiar man even though he had never met him, stood smirking a few feet away from her.

"It's been a long time, baby sister," he said arrogantly with an Italian accent that had faded over time.

Damon realized three things at once.

One, the man- the vampire- who had staked Aria was Antonio, her brother.

Two, the worst thing you could do to your vampire hunting brother would be to turn him into the thing he hunted.

Three, Aria turned Antonio.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: Katerina The Von, SomebodyWhoCares, TVDDamonSLover, and David Fishwick for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	14. no light in your bright blue eyes

**Chapter thirteen**

"_No light in your bright blue eyes," No Light No Light by Florence + the Machine _

_Ireland_

_1526_

_Screams echoed around Aria, a twisted symphony to her ears. She laughed slightly as the moon, big, round, and full, cast a glow over the horrific scene in the town square of the small Irish town Aria was currently in. And she was in the middle of her dinner._

_Blood dripped from the terrified young girl inches away from Aria. She was the one screaming, hazel eyes wide with terror. Aria pulled away from her pale neck, two round holes in the skin, made by her fangs. The blood that trickled down the neck was the same blood that was on Aria's mouth, lips, and fangs. It was sweet and warm and satisfied the forever burning thirst within her. _

_Aria roughly pushed the girl onto the ground, and the young girl was too afraid to run away. She just stayed on the ground, slowly bleeding to death, staring up at the monster in front of her. Aria certainly looked the part. Her dress was blood stained, her eyes were a deep red, the veins underneath darkened and very visible, and her fangs long and sharp, stained with blood._

"_Run," Aria hissed while leering down at her victim. "Run!"_

_The girl's senses came back to her, and she took off running away from Aria. This only made the hunt that much more fun for her. Aria waited until the girl was just by a local pub before she went after her._

_Aria easily grabbed her prey and pulled her away from the loud, crowded pub and into the darkness of the shadows. The girl began to cry with fear. "Please," she sobbed, an Irish accent visible. "Please don't kill me."_

"_Now, where's the fun in that?" Aria smirked down at the curly haired brunette before ripping into her soft, pale skin._

_The girl shouted and sobbed and screamed until she eventually passed out from the blood loss. Then her veins ran dry and her heart stopped beating. Aria dropped the corpse and it hit the ground by her feet._

_As she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, footsteps behind her caused Aria to stiffen. Was it Anthony? Trying to ruin her good mood like usual?_

_A wooden arrow was shot at Aria, and she just dodged it. Grabbing the arrow in her hand, she turned around to find her attacker. Her blue eyes widened slightly before smirked._

_Antonio, her brother. This would be fun._

_He didn't look afraid to see his baby sister with blood down the front of her dress. She started pacing slowly around him, her smirk growing on her lips. _

"_Well, well, well, It's been a while, brother," she drawled. "You've gotten…" her eyes drifted over to him. "Old." She cackled, but Antonio wasn't amused._

"_I told you I would be the one to kill you, Aria," he said, stiff as a board._

_Aria narrowed her eyes at him. "Kill me? Your own sister? I thought we were family, Antonio," she said sarcastically._

_He glared at her. "Family? That did not stop you from killing father, from killing mother." Aria almost flinched, but she stopped herself. Their mother had died giving birth to Aria. That hadn't been her fault, not really. But both her brother and father had always secretly blamed her for her mother's death. And now Antonio was throwing it in her face._

"_You are a monster, Aria," Antonio continued. "You are an evil monster and you have to be stopped. I will be the one to stop you."_

_She scoffed, anger slowly killing her buzz. "Really? And how do you plan on doing such a thing? I am stronger than you, Antonio. I am stronger and faster and more powerful. I have nothing to fear from you, a lowly human." _

_He narrowed his eyes at his sister. "You were a lowly human like me but three short years ago, Aria," he reminded her._

"_Yes, I was. And then I died. Funny, how death changes us like that." She stared steadily at her brother. "Do you think you could really kill me, Antonio? Do you think yourself strong enough to kill your baby sister?" she asked him, taunting him._

_He gritted his teeth and gripped his stake in his hand, ready to strike. "My baby sister died three years ago; you are nothing more than the monster who was born after she died," he said in a low, steady voice._

_She gritted her teeth at his answer. "You did not answer my question, Antonio," she told him._

"_Yes," he growled, glaring at her. "I can kill you, Aria. I want nothing more than to thrust this stake into your heart and watch you die."_

_She glared back at him. "Well, I suppose there is one thing we still have in common, Antonio," she started to say. "You see, I have no problem killing you either."_

_Quick as lightening, Aria flashed over to her brother, tore his weapons from his hands, and slammed him against a nearby tree. His blue eyes widened slightly in fear as Aria's face contorted into a monstrous version. She growled in his face menacingly, eyes full of malice, a smirk visible on her lips._

"_How should I kill you, dear brother?" she hissed. "Rip your heart out quick, or watch you slowly bleed to death? Oh, the options."_

"_I have vervain in my system, Aria," he told her, hoping to ruin her fun._

"_I don't need to drink your blood to enjoy killing you, Antonio," she retorted, trying to decide how she would end her brother's life._

_She eyed him, an idea popping into her head. "You know what? I think I can do one better than killing you," she told him._

_Antonio's eyebrows furrowed, before eyes widening. He knew what would be worse than killing a vampire hunter._

"_I'm going to turn you, my big brother," she told him._

"_Aria-" he started to say, looking terrified, but then Aria bit into her wrist and shoved it into his mouth. He struggled to push her wrist away, and accidently swallowed some blood. Then, she slammed Antonio against the tree, growled at him one last time, before snapping his neck, killing him._

_Her dead brother fell to the ground. Aria looked down at him and smirked. "You're going to love your afterlife, Antonio," she whispered, before turning her back on him and walking away._

_She didn't even think about the consequences before she turned Antonio, the biggest one being making the hunter hunting her want her dead that much more, making the hunter hunting her that much more deadly to her._

_But Aria with her humanity turned off never thought before she acted._

"How did you find me?" Aria hissed, backing away from him. She pulled the stake from her stomach with a groan. "You were supposed to think I was dead."

"I did, for centuries. A real pity too. But then I got a phone call telling me that you weren't dead. You were, in fact, here. And now I'm here to do the thing I promised I would do. I'm here to kill you, Aria," Antonio said, slowly stalking towards her.

And then Damon was in between the two siblings, protecting Aria "Don't touch her," he growled, pushing Antonio away from Aria.

His eyes flickered over to Aria. "I see you have a bodyguard now, sister," he mused. "No matter. He can't always protect you."

"Oh, I beg to differ," Damon retorted dryly.

Antonio looked at Damon. "I have no problem killing you along with her," he told him casually.

"And I have no problem dying for her," he shot back, causing Aria's eyebrows to furrow.

Antonio shrugged. "That can be arranged." Then he was gone.

Aria ran a hand over her face as Damon turned around to face her. "Are you good?" he asked her gruffly and she nodded.

"Good, because you've got some explaining to do, and it'd suck for you to do that while you were slowly bleeding to death," he said dryly, before offering her a hand to pull her up.

She grabbed her, her blue eyes never leaving his. "Damon-" she started to say, but cut herself off. Despite the fact that her big secret was out, all she could think about was Damon saying how he'd die for her. Aria had never really thought about that before, but when she did she supposed she would die for Damon. In a heartbeat. And even after the drama and tension going on between them, it made Aria weak in the knees to think that he'd do the same for her.

"Yeah, Ria?" he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm really, really sorry that I didn't have the balls to tell you about Antonio, and that I let our fight get this far. I'm sorry," she repeated.

Damon's flickered away from her and then back. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "I forgive you," he said grudgingly. "But the next time you keep something as undramatic as you turning your brother, I'm going to kick your ass."

She grinned despite herself. "I'll keep that in mind."

Damon looked away from her. "Do you still want waffles?" he asked.

She nodded. "Sounds great." But she didn't move. She knew that, with her secret out in the open, things between her and Damon were slowly returning to normal. She could practically feel the tension leave the room. And she couldn't be happier about that. Aria kicked herself mentally for not telling Damon sooner. He obviously couldn't care less. He was her best friend, after all. Nothing she could ever do, would ever convince Damon Aria was the monster she thought she was.

"Shall we, then?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Aria nodded, but still didn't move. Damon sighed, growing agitated. "Ria, did getting staked in the stomach kill a few dozen of your brain cells?"

Slowly, Aria came out of her trance. She had had the sudden urge to jump into Damon's arms, to kiss him. Oh, how much Aria wanted to kiss him at that moment. But no, she just got things back to normal between her and Damon. She wouldn't ruin it with a kiss. She couldn't.

"Sorry, just seeing my brother has put me into shock. I haven't seen him since 1792. But, yeah. Let's go get waffles and I'll explain everything," Aria said, returning to normal. Then she looked down at her blood stained dress. "I should probably change first. And take a shower too. I smell like tequila."

Damon sighed. "We're going to a diner, Ria, not to a red carpet premier. You don't have to try every outfit you own on twice, okay?"

She rolled her eyes. "Ten minutes, I promise," she said, holding up all ten of her fingers before walking past Damon towards the stairs. He surprised her by grabbing her arm.

"Yeah?" she asked, turning around to face him.

Damon had a thoughtful look in his eyes as he stared down at her. "I-" he started to say, but then cut himself off.

Aria nodded up at him. "I know. I missed you too." Then, unable to control herself, Aria threw her arms around Damon, resting her head on his chest. Damon hugged her back.

Aria forced herself to pull away too soon, so that she wouldn't lose control and kiss her best friend. But before she could run upstairs, Damon grabbed her face, looking into her eyes.

Her blonde eyebrows furrowed. "What, Damon?"

He leaned slightly in, almost hypnotized by her lips. He stopped himself before he could kiss her, though, or before Aria could notice that he almost kissed her. Damon shook his head to clear it and pulled away from her. "Nothing, go take a shower. You smell like tequila."

Aria smiled softly and started off towards the stairs. Damon watched her go before running a hand through his hair. He needed to be careful. He needed to control himself around Aria.

Being attracted to his best friend was going to kill their relationship.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: David Fishwick, Samantha meyers, TVDDamonSLover, Katerina The Von, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	15. lights will guide you home

**Chapter fourteen **

"_Lights will guide you home," Fix You by Coldplay_

"Why did Antonio think you were dead?"

Aria stabbed a square of waffle with her fork, shoved it into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed before answering Damon's question. "I faked my death so that I wouldn't have to spend the rest of my existence running from him," she said easily.

"How?" Damon asked, mildly impressed with her. Aria pushed a lock of blonde hair behind her ear and took a sip of her coffee.

"In England around 1792, a small cottage went up in flames. There was only one casualty. A young woman, around twenty two, burned to ashes in the fire- or so everyone thought. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, a great ass…" Aria smirked and gnawed on a piece of bacon. "Does that description remind you of anybody you know?"

Damon rolled his eyes at her. "Your ass isn't _that _great, Ria," he drawled, and Aria fake-pouted. It was a lie, though. Ria had a great ass. He couldn't say that to her, though. It would be crossing a line.

Aria missed this, she missed their relationship. She missed the teasing and the jabs at each other. She really was glad that the truth came out when it did. "So, you committed arson to fake your own death so that your psycho vampire hunting vampire brother wouldn't keep trying to kill you?" Damon asked her, stealing a piece of her toast from across the table of the booth they were sitting at.

"Basically, yeah." Aria smirked at him from over her coffee mug. "And you thought your relationship with your brother was complicated."

"You and Antonio make Stefan and I seem normal," he agreed.

She frowned suddenly, her good mood disappearing as fast as it had come. "You know what this means though, right?" she asked her best friend.

Damon's eyebrows furrowed. "What are you talking about, Ria?" he asked her.

"Anthony and Antonio are both here, in Mystic Falls," she said slowly, like he was stupid. Damon rolled his blue eyes at her.

"I know that, dumbass." Aria glared at him. "What does that mean?"

"They're here, to kill me. They'll kill you too," she said quietly, staring down at her black coffee.

Damon shrugged, not worried. "I think we can take them," he said confidently.

Aria frowned at him. "You need to take this seriously, Damon. They'll kill you if you get in their way. They'll kill you if you try to stop them from killing me."

Damon just shrugged again. "I've risked my life for less important things than you," he told her honestly.

Aria felt her cheeks tinged pink, and she looked down at the steel table. "I'm not going to have you die for me, Damon," she told him stubbornly. "I'm really not worth your life."

Damon was still unbothered. "You and I have different opinions on that, Ria," he told her. "Best friends until the end, right?"

Aria glared at him. "The end isn't supposed to be your death, Damon. There isn't supposed to be an end!" she said indigently.

Damon fixed her with a hard stare. "Could you honestly tell me that, if the roles were reversed, you wouldn't be willing to die for me, Aria? Because if you could, then I won't risk my skin by standing in between you and the two guys who want your head on a stick."

Aria sighed and bit her lip. "You can't, can you?" Damon smirked smugly. "Told you, Ria. We're best friend until the end. And if the end happens to be me taking a stake in the heart for you, so be it."

Just the thought of Damon, gray skinned and rotting, made Aria sick. She shook her head to make the image get out of her head. It made her sound co-dependent, it made her sound pathetic, but she couldn't imagine her life with Damon Salvatore. She didn't know what she'd do if he no longer populated the world. Just wander aimlessly until she died, she supposed.

But Aria would take a stake in the heart for Damon, too. Their reasons were different, or so she thought. Damon would die for Aria because they were best friends. Aria would die for Damon because she was madly in love with him.

"Let's just hope it won't come to that," Aria said, finally looking up at her best friend.

Damon nodded in agreement. "Let's hope not."

"What are we going to do though?" Aria sighed and ran a hand through her blonde hair. "I suppose I could fake my death again," she mused thoughtfully.

"Isn't the solution obvious?" Damon asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Enlighten me, Damon," she retorted dryly.

"We kill them, Ria," he told her. "What else would we do?"

_**~EIATT~**_

"Killing Anthony and Antonio is not as simple as you make it seem, Damon," Aria argued, grabbing the bottle of bourbon from him.

"I don't see how it isn't, Ria. You take a wooden stake, shove it into their heart, and then- poof!- they're dead. Magic, I know," Damon said sarcastically.

Aria rolled her eyes and took a long sip of bourbon. She was an alcoholic. She could probably use a few AA meetings, they'd do her some good. Alcohol made her killing urges go away, though. She'd take being an alcoholic over being a mindless, blood addicted killer any day of the week.

Alaric watched the two friends with half-interest. The three were at the Mystic Grill discussing how to kill Anthony and Antonio. "They're both old, Damon. Older than you. And Anthony's older than me by a few centuries," Aria told him.

"We can still take them," Damon muttered.

"I'm not so sure about that," she replied skeptically.

Damon glared at her suddenly. "It's almost as if you don't want them to die, Aria," he said accusingly.

Aria narrowed her eyes at him. "Of course I do, Damon! I don't want to die! I don't want them to kill you or me! I'm just being realistic."

"You're being pessimistic, Aria," he told her.

"Sometimes the two go hand in hand," she retorted.

Alaric sighed. "Remember when everything was sunshine and rainbows between you two and you weren't going at each other's throats? I missed those times. By any chance, can we go back to them?"

Damon and Aria both ignored him. "Okay, so maybe I'm not so thrilled with the idea of killing my brother," Aria muttered finally.

Damon's eyes furrowed. "You killed him before," he reminded her.

Aria sighed. "I know I did. That was different, though. I know he'd come back. And I was different then, too."

"I'll kill him, Aria," Damon offered. "You know it has to be done. If you don't kill him, he'll kill you first."

Aria sighed and nodded her head in understanding. He was right, of course. Aria had no right of having any inhibitions about killing Antonio- not after what she did to her family. Still, she couldn't bring herself to agree to Damon's plan. Maybe because she knew his plans almost never worked out.

"What is it then?" Damon demanded, annoyed at her silence. "If it's not Antonio, what is it? Is it… Anthony?" Damon felt white-hot jealousy stab him. He wanted nothing more than to rip Anthony's heart out with his teeth.

Aria looked up, startled. "No, of course not." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you think that I still have feelings for Anthony? After everything he's done to me?"

"What else could it be, Aria?" Damon asked her gruffly.

"Maybe I just don't want to die, okay? Maybe I don't want you to die or anyone you manage to recruit to die." Aria gave Ric a pointed look.

"We won't die, Ria," he told her.

"You can't promise that, Damon," she muttered, before standing up.

Damon sighed as Aria began walking away, taking the bottle of bourbon with her. "Where are you going?"

"I need to think," she replied shortly, before walking out of the bar.

Damon just sighed and poured himself another shot.

_**~EIATT~**_

The sun was setting as Aria walked around Mystic Falls, the bottle of bourbon in her hand. She'd take a sip from it every few minutes, her blue eyes wandering around, watching nothing in particular. She had just started to walk into a small park when she was joined by an unwelcomed person.

"It's nice to see you, Aria."

Aria turned around and glared at a smirking Anthony, anger rushing through her veins. She was lucky that they were alone in the park, because the next thing she did was attack him.

Aria dug her nails into Anthony's face, but he easily threw her off of him. Aria landed on her ass on the ground, her half empty bottle shattering on the sidewalk next to her. "Somebody's in a pissy mood," he said casually as she stood up and brushed herself off.

"You told my brother where I was. That was low, Anthony, even for you," she said in a low voice.

Anthony just shrugged. "I warned you, Ria." She resisted the urge to attack him again.

"Rot in hell," she spat, before turning her back on him and walking away.

Suddenly, he was blocking her path. "Wait one second, Aria," he said. "There's something we need to discuss."

Aria put a hand on her hip. "What?"

"You have another option besides leaving, you know," he told her and she frowned. "Leave with me. I'll kill Antonio myself and you'll be safe and alive. And we'll be together again. Remember how much fun we had?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't call that fun."

Anthony smirked at her. "Really? Because I had a blast."

She glared at him again. "No way in hell. I'd rather die than live out my eternity with you."

Anthony's eyes quickly turned dark. He suddenly struck her across the face, and Aria went flying into a tree. "You ungrateful bitch," he growled, stalking towards her. "You don't respect me at all, don't you? You don't appreciate everything I've done for you?"

Aria scoffed as her ribs burned. "What have you done-" she was cut off when Anthony slapped her across the face. She hissed in pain.

"You know, you act like you're better than me, Aria," he told her, his voice low and rough. "You're not. You're just a slut, a skank, a monster. When will you finally accept that? You're no better than me- you're worse."

He was gone then, leaving Aria in pain to contemplate his words. Every time he told her that, she believed him a little bit more.

_**~EIATT~**_

Aria walked into the boarding house to find Damon waiting for her in the living room. There was a fire roaring, and Aria could feel the heat from across the room.

"There you are, Ria." Damon stood up and began walking towards her. "I've been waiting for-" he stopped suddenly and frowned at her. "What happened?"

Aria sighed and sat down on the couch. Damon knew almost instantly that something bad had happened to her, just by the faraway look in her eyes and the frown on her lips. He really did know her too well.

Instead of answering his question, Aria said softly, "You know, Anthony has always been able to get inside my head. Always. Even now, he can almost sense my weaknesses and strike me where he knows it'll hurt. He gets inside my head, tells me these terrible things, and I believe him. I don't know why, but he has this way of making me believe him. He makes me believe that I'm a whore. He makes me believe that I'm a no good slut, a monster. Every time we meet, I think even less of myself than I did before. And it's all because Anthony can get in my head and convince me I'm a terrible person."

Damon knew before that Anthony had something to do with her mood- he always did. Aria's speech just made him even more sure. "Ria, it's not true, okay? You're none of those things," he told her fiercely.

"Really? Then why do I believe him?" she asked him quietly, tears in her eyes.

Damon just pulled her into his arms and Aria sobbed quietly into his chest.

He was going to rip Anthony's heart out if it was the last thing he'd do.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to: David Fishwick, Katerina The Von, SomebodyWhoCares, TVDDamonSLover, and 2cute4u-22 for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	16. i'll be dead before the day is done

**Chapter fifteen**

"_I'll be dead before the day is done,"- Seven Devils by Florence + the Machine_

The next day, Damon searched all over the boarding house for Aria. She was nowhere to be found, though. He was worried about her, worried that Anthony would break her. It was a concern similar to one Aria had about Katherine breaking him. But, at that moment, Aria was the greater concern.

"Ria?" he called, his voice echoing around the boarding house. There was no answer. Damon sighed. "Aria?" he tried. Still no answer.

He hoped that, at that moment, Aria wasn't drunk in some foreign country with a stranger's tongue down her throat. It made something like jealousy boil up inside of him. He also knew that, if the situations were reversed, he'd probably be doing just that at that moment. He was hoping that Aria was more responsible than him, which she was.

"Aria Moretti, I'm talking to you!" Damon shouted again. There was still no answer. He was starting to get annoyed.

"Aria Gabriella Moretti, where the hell are you?"

Again, no answer. Damon sighed. He was starting to get really annoyed. He was worried, too. It wasn't like there weren't two men in town who wanted Aria dead. Maybe she wasn't in the boarding house. Maybe…

A sudden sob broke Damon out of his thoughts. His head snapped in the direction of the sob, and then, in the blink of an eye, he was standing in front of an unused room he didn't even know existed. There, sitting on the floor, blankets wrapped around her, wearing very unsexy pajamas with ducks on them, was Aria. Her blonde hair was knotted and tossed into a very messy bun on top of her head. Her nose was red, her face puffy, and her eyes bloodshot. Her eyes were glued to a giant TV a few feet away from her- since when had that been in their house?- and her eyes watered before she sobbed into a pillow she had in a vice grip.

"I have never been more turned on," Damon muttered to himself sarcastically. Then he raised his voice and said, "Aria, what are you doing?"

"Drowning in my own tears," she answered, her voice muffled by the abused pillow in her grip.

Damon rolled his eyes at his friend, before looking at the TV screen and frowning. "Ria, are you crying over a Disney movie?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

Aria didn't leave her pillow. "Yes."

"But… it's a Disney movie," Damon said slowly, as if she was dumb.

"Your point?"

He just shook his head and sighed. Anthony really had messed with Aria.

She finally came out of her pillow and stared at Damon. "It's _Up, _Damon. The saddest movie to ever exist- and that's based on the first five minutes alone!" Lost in her sadness, Aria's British accent was getting lost. In some words, her real Italian accent could be heard. It was faded from centuries of being hidden under different accents, but it was still there.

For the first time ever, Damon wondered why Aria changed her accent every few decades. Because she was bored? Because it would spice things up? Or was it something deeper than that? Something… sadder. Was it because her Italian accent was the one she wore when she tore throats out? Because hearing her voice coated in that accent reminded her of what a killer she was, a monster? Because, even though Aria had come to accept what she was, she didn't want to be a monster. She was resigned to the fact that she was evil, but little things like her ever changing accent hinted that she was still in denial.

Aria was so broken.

Damon hid his thoughtful frown from Aria. That was one moment of a few where Aria's self-loathing hit him. He had tried to convince her not to be so hard on herself before, bit his attempts had been futile. Nothing Damon could ever do would convince Aria that she wasn't evil incarnate.

"So, let me guess, the plan for the day is to watch really depressing movies while sitting on the really uncomfortable floor," Damon said dryly.

"_And eating junk food that's really bad for you," _Aria added, holding up a bag of peanut butter M&M's

Damon sighed. Anthony really had messed Aria up. He had spent the last night holding Aria in his arms while she just cried, and now she was watching depressing movies, looking like a complete mess. Because Aria was broken.

Damon decided to humor her, though. He sat down next to his best friend and took the bag of candy from her. "Do we really have to watch _Up?" _he asked her.

Aria beamed, happy for the company, and stood up. "No. We have other movies, like _The Notebook _and _Titanic _and _My Girl _and _The Bridge to Terabithia. _You can choose," she told him.

"Basically, every depressing movie ever made, you have it," Damon summed up.

She shrugged. "Yes, I think so."

"Fine, let's watch _Titanic. _ButI still think it's overrated," he said almost indifferently and Aria glared at him.

"You must be made of stone, Damon. Or part robot. Or a robot made of stone," she said.

"They could have easily both fit on that board. But they were too dumb to realize it," Damon argued.

Aria narrowed her eyes at him. "You say another word against _Titanic, _and I'll unfriend you," she threatened.

He rolled his eyes. "This isn't Facebook, Ria-" he started to say, but she cut him off.

"I. Will. Unfriend. You," she said slowly, carefully enunciating each word.

Damon just sighed and grabbed a handful of peanut butter M&M's. "Let's just watch the damn movie," he muttered.

Aria put in the movie before returning to her small mountain of blankets. She burrowed under them, finding warmth she didn't necessarily need, but it made her feel safer. The movie started, and Aria pulled a bag of gummy worms out from under a pillow, along with a bottle of scotch. Damon watched her out of the corner of his eye, before looking back at the TV screen.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" he asked her casually.

Aria shrugged. "Not really."

He looked back to her. "Do you plan to sleep anytime soon?" he tried again.

Aria just shrugged again. "Who knows?"

He sighed, annoyed. "You know, turning into some sloppy mess that spends her days watching depressing movies is only giving Anthony what he wants, Ria."

She bit her lip. "How do you know that?" she asked after a few silent moments.

Damon shrugged. "I just know what he wants."

"And what does he want?" she asked him dully.

"He wants to break you, Aria. How he does that, I doubt he cares. Whether is by making you think so badly of yourself, you come crawling black to him. Or, if it's by watching your brother rip your heart out," Damon gritted his teeth just at the thought, "It doesn't matter to Anthony. He just wants to break you. And you wallowing means he's winning. Don't let him win, Ria."

She sighed slightly and pulled her knees up to her chin. "One day, okay? I just want one day where I don't have to be strong, where I can fall apart and watch sad movies and ball my eyes out. Then tomorrow, I'll put myself back together again and return to being strong Aria. All I ask for is one day where I can be a sloppy mess without any judgment."

Damon shrugged. "That's good enough for me," he said. Then the two settled down into the mass of blankets and pillows. The opening credits started to roll, and Aria tore into the bag of gummy worms.

"I would never judge you, Ria," Damon said suddenly, not taking his eyes off of the screen. "I'm in no position to judge you."

"I know you wouldn't, Damon," Aria assured him. "You never have before."

She squeezed his left hand with her right one, before ripping a blue and red gummy worm in half with her teeth. Damon pursed his lips, continuing to watch his best friend out of the corner of his eye.

Damon didn't mind that Aria was going to be a sloppy mess for a day, that she was going to let her composure fall apart. If anyone deserved a day to do that, it was her. What Damon was worried about was if Aria could put herself back together again when the day was done.

_**~EIATT~**_

Somewhere in the middle of _The Notebook, _Aria fell asleep with her head on Damon's shoulder. He didn't move because he didn't want to wake her. So, after the movie ended, Damon just stared at the black TV screen, losing himself in his thoughts. It must have been hours later when she finally started to stir in her sleep. Then one blue eye opened to blink up at him.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," Damon said dryly. Aria just snuggled deeper into his shoulder.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few more minutes, both lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Damon voiced the things that had been running through his head for hours. "I wish it was you instead of Katherine."

Aria's heart skipped a beat. Her instead of Katherine for what? Did Damon wish that he fell in love with her instead of Katherine? Only in Aria's dreams.

"Hmm?" She looked up at him, big blue eyes blinking sleep away.

"I wish it was you who came to Mystic Falls in 1864 instead of Katherine," Damon clarified. It was close enough for Aria. She hid her smile in his black shirt.

"Well, you wouldn't have had your heart broken, that's for sure," she said.

There was that, but what Damon really meant was, that, if Aria had been the vampire to come to Mystic Falls, he would've fallen in love with her instead of Katherine, he was sure of it. He could've felt the things he did without guilt, without shame. He wouldn't of spent the last a hundred and forty five years pining for a selfish bitch. He could've been so, so happy, if he had met Aria in 1864 instead of Katherine. They both could have been.

Instead, Aria was forced to hide her love for Damon, and Damon was left feeling guilty and ashamed for being extremely attracted to Aria- and that was just what he had admitted to himself. All so that they could save their friendship.

Love complicated everything.

A sudden noise from downstairs startled both friends. Aria sat up straight and Damon stood up. Frowning, he said, "I'll go see what it is."

Aria frowned and started to stand up. "Wait, Damon. I'm older-" But Damon was already out of the room.

Sighing, Aria ran a hand through her messy, knotted hair, and tugged at her wrinkled ducky pajamas. She followed her best friend, muttering about his impulsive and reckless tendencies. She padded down the stairs and walked into the living room just in time to see Damon get a stake shoved into his chest.

Aria's world shattered at that moment. Her eyes widened, her mouth opening to scream out his name. In a flash, she was at his side, yanking out the stake as if that would undo any damage it had already done.

"No, no, no," she repeated over and over again, staring hard at Damon, making sure he wouldn't turn that deadly gray. He couldn't die on her, she wouldn't allow it.

But Damon was still alive. The stake had missed his heart. Just barely. But he wasn't focused on that. His eyes were full of fear- for Aria. "Run," he choked out, his voice rough and hoarse and low.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What-" she started to say. She was cut off when her neck was snapped, and she fell to the floor, unconscious.

Antonio tossed his sister over his shoulder, before turning his attention back to Damon. He tried to get up, tried to stop his best friend's brother from taking her. But then Antonio kicked him, hard. Hard enough to break his neck. And then Damon blacked out, and Aria was gone.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **There are probably only about five chapters left. I warned you guys that this wasn't going to be a very long story.

Thank you to: David Fishwick, Katerina The Von, Samantha meyers, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	17. we're smiling but we're close to tears

**Chapter sixteen**

"_We're smiling but we're close to tears," For The First Time by The Script _

Aria groaned as she came to. Her neck was sore, her head pounding. "God, kill me now," she muttered, raising her head.

As she became more aware of her surroundings, she began to realize the pain in her arms, her arm sockets especially. She looked around to realize that she was hanging three inches off the ground by heavy metal chains connected to the walls. Cuffs were shackled to her wrists, pulling her arms almost above her head, towards the ceiling.

"Damn it," Aria muttered. She could only figure that two men were responsible for her current position. Anthony and Antonio.

"It's about time you're awake. We have so much to do and so little time."

With dull eyes, Aria watched Anthony walk into the room, his cheerfulness out of place in the dark, dreary, torture chamber-like room. He was all business under his casual exterior, though.

His eyes roamed Aria's body, still covered in her duck pajamas, almost hungrily. "I've always liked you strung up like this, Ria," he told her. "So vulnerable looking, mine for the taking." She gave an involuntary shudder at his words.

"You're going to torture me before you kill me, aren't you?" Aria's voice was harsh and low and dull, as if she had already given up on the hope of making it out alive.

"I wouldn't call it torturing. More like… creative punishment. For all the bad things you've done. You've been a very naughty girl, Ria." He smirked at her.

Aria was confused, though. Why did Anthony care about what she has done? He has done bad things too, some even worse than things she had done. Besides, he was all for vampires killing, being monsters. He preferred it. Why did Anthony want her dead? Why?

"Why do you wanna kill me?" Aria asked the question without any thought. Her arms were aching, she was in pain. She wasn't in any condition to think.

Anthony's eyebrows furrowed slightly in thought, as he stalked slowly towards her. "I turned you, Aria," he told her slowly, deliberately. "I created you, made you, sired you. Everything you are is because of me. You are mine, you always have been. Except, you don't want to be mine. I don't think you ever really did. But if you're not mine, you can't be anybody else's. If you're not mine, Aria, I can't allow you to live."

Her eyebrows furrowed. At that moment, she truly realized how… screwed up in the head Anthony was. She didn't know what had caused him to become the abusive, possessive, monster of a man he was today, but he was messed up. He didn't understand love, affection. He only wanted Aria because he saw it as his right to have her. Aria knew a lot of broken, damaged people, Damon and herself among them, but Anthony was beyond broken. He wasn't right in the head.

Aria looked up at him, her blue eyes connecting with his fearlessly. "I'd rather die a thousand times over than ever be yours," she whispered tonelessly. She didn't think about the words she said. She knew she was going to die. Anthony and Antonio would see to that.

Anthony eyes narrowed, and he slapped her across the face. She gasped sharply at the pain. "You ungrateful slut," he growled. "Everything I've done for you- you should be thanking me on bended knee."

For some reason, knowing that she was going to die gave Aria strength against Anthony's insults. She wasn't bothered by them. He couldn't break her, not anymore. It was as if there was a shield around her, blocking her from his venomous words. A saying she heard once or twice throughout her years suddenly popped into her mind. _I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. _She felt the urge to say that to Anthony at that moment.

Instead, Aria said, "Thanking you? For what? For turning me? For calling me cruel things? For making me a monster, evil incarnated?" Her gaze was steady on him. "You're right, Anthony. You made me into everything I am. You made me into this self-loathing, pathetic monster I am today. Should I thank you for that?" Aria paused. "But, I suppose there is one thing you're good for. Thank you, Anthony, because every time I look at you, I realize that I will never be as evil as you."

Anthony's glare intensified, and he raised his hand to strike Aria again when a voice suddenly stopped him. "And what do you think you're doing?"

Unlike Aria, Antonio had never changed his accent. He never tried to hide from his past like she so desperately had. It had faded over time, but Antonio's words still had a thick Italian accent wrapped around them. Aria still spoke with her fake British accent she had perfected over time. She had even managed to almost completely forget how to speak Italian as well, though she still knew a few words and phrases. Anything to forget about her family, her past.

Anthony calmly pulled away from Aria and raised an eyebrow at her brother. "Why does it matter to you, what I'm doing?" He asked coldly.

Antonio's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Because-"

"Because she's your little sister?" Anthony laughed humorlessly. "It's not like we took her to kill her or anything," he said sarcastically.

Antonio stared defiantly at Anthony. "We took her to kill her, like you said. We did not take her to torture her, to play mind games with her," he said.

Anthony pulled slowly away from Aria, and turned to face her big brother. "Did you forget about the things she's done? The innocents she brutally killed? Aria deserved to have a few limbs removed before she finally has a stake shoved into her heart."

"No." Antonio said the word so bluntly, making it sound so final, it looked as if even Anthony had a hard time arguing with it. "I don't torture. I never have, and I don't plan to start now. Not even with Aria." His eyes flickered over to his baby sister, before settling back on Anthony.

Aria didn't know whether Antonio refused to torture her because of his morals, or if because, deep, deep down, he still saw her as his little sister, no matter what she had done to him and his family. Either way, she was grateful. If she was going to die, she'd like it to be as painless as possible.

"Are you kidding me?" Anthony growled, clearly pissed off that he couldn't torture Aria.

"Do I sound like I am?" Antonio retorted, before turning his back on him. He started to walk towards the door, before pausing suddenly.

"questo è per il meglio, sorellina. Deve essere," he told her in their native language, though he sounded almost doubtful. Then Antonio left the room. Anthony growled angrily one more time before following him out.

Aria frowned, confused. She knew enough Italian to know what Antonio had told her.

_this is for the best, little sister. It has to be._

His tone, questioning his own words even as he spoke them, was enough to distract Aria from her aching limbs.

_**~EIATT~**_

Eventually, Aria fell into an uneasy sleep. She had been left alone, just hanging from the ceiling, and therefore left alive, because Anthony and Antonio kept arguing. Antonio refused to torture his little sister in any way, shape, or form. He wanted to give her a clean death. A stake right in the heart. Quick, simple, humane- at least, to vampire hunters. He didn't believe in torturing. His father hadn't. Their family hadn't. It went against everything he was raised to believe in.

Anthony, on the other hand, wanted to torture Aria. He wanted to rip and maim and beat her body until she was nothing more than a bloody mush of flesh. He refused to go down without a fight. He would get what he wanted- he was always used to getting what he wanted.

So, while the two bickered and fought, Aria fell into a restless sleep. And she was not alone in her dreams.

"_Aria! Thank God!"_

_She didn't even have time to take in the scene of her dream before Damon pulled her to him, hugging her as if it would be his last hug ever. She numbly hugged him back, realizing that he had been waiting to get into her head for hours._

_He pulled away from her, and Aria noticed the beautiful sky, rolling hills, fields of wildflowers. It was the prettiest place she had ever been, and she was sure that it didn't even exist. Damon had created it when he created her dream._

"_Where are you?" he demanded, as she let her eyes wander around the pretty sight. If this was the last place she was before she died, she'd be okay with that. Here, in this beautiful field, with the beautiful man she loved. She'd be okay with dying after this. _

"_I think I have an idea where you are, but it would help if you knew," Damon continued, not noticing that Aria was strangely silent._

"_Why do you want to know?" she asked him finally, her voice strangely dull. She found it hard to focus on one thing for long. _

"_So I can rescue you," he told her slowly, as if she was stupid. "Dumbass," he added, muttering the insult under his breath._

_Aria bit her lip. "What if-" she cut herself off._

_Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "What if what?" he asked._

"_What if me dying is for the best?" she asked._

_Damon rolled his eyes. "Now is not the time for your self-loathing broodiness, Aria," he snapped._

_She narrowed her eyes. "I'm serious, Damon. What if it's just my time? What if I'm just meant to die?" Yet another quote popped into her head. Shakespeare this time. 'We are born to die.'_

"_We are born to die," Aria whispered to herself, as Damon's eyes widened._

"_No," he said, desperately, almost. "No, it's not your time, Aria. Your death is not for the best."_

_She looked up at him. "And why not?" she asked exasperatedly. _

"_Because you're my best friend and I need you!"_

_Damon's eyes widened at the outburst. He meant it though. He meant every single word._

_Aria stared up at him. "You have Alaric, Damon. You'd be fine without me," she said quietly._

"_I doubt it. Ric doesn't look nearly as good in a skirt as you do," he said. She gave a shaky laugh._

"_You're not dying, Ria. It's not up for discussion," he said fiercely._

_She sighed. It wasn't. "Fine."_

"_Fine?" he raised an eyebrow._

"_Fine, I'm not dying. But I don't know where I am, so you're on your own with that one," she told him._

"_I think I know where you are," he told him. "Your brother isn't so good at hiding his trail."_

"_I don't think you have much time," she said._

"_I know."_

_Aria suddenly felt the urge to say something. Something self-destructive, something she barely allowed herself to think, let alone say. Still, she opened her mouth without a thought. "Damon, I-"_

"Wakey wakey, princess."

Aria opened her eyes to see a smirking Anthony.

"What-" she started to say, but was promptly cut off when he shoved a wooden stake into her stomach.

Anthony always got what he wanted in the end.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **I. Am. So. Sorry.

I have taken forever to update, I know. I promise not to make a habit of it.

Thank you to: shevil, TVDDamonSLover, SomebodyWhoCares, and Katerina The Von for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	18. I'll be here when you come around

**Chapter seventeen**

"_I'll be here when you come around," Come Around by Stars Go Dim_

A shout of pain fell from Aria's lips as Anthony stabbed her repeatedly with a wooden stake. She didn't know what had suddenly changed Antonio's mind about torturing her. She could only hope that Damon got to her before they killed her.

"Look at me, gorgeous," Anthony said suddenly, a twisted smirk on his lips as he grabbed her face. "I want you to look at me while you scream."

Aria looked at him in disgust. He was getting off on torturing her. He truly was twisted, sick, not right in the head. Who got off on torturing?

"Screw you," she spat, sweat dripping down her forehead.

Anthony smirked. "I know you want to, baby."

Aria aimed a kick at him suddenly, coming in contact with his stomach. He groaned slightly, but the kick wasn't hard enough to inflict any real pain. All humor left Anthony's face at that moment, and he grabbed Aria's leg and twisted it painfully. The snap it made was sickening, and Aria let out a howl of pain.

"You want to try that again, little girl? Or do I have to break your other leg?" Anthony grabbed Aria's right leg and gripped it hard enough to leave a bruise. She gritted her teeth but didn't say a word.

His eyes hardened, pure malice filling them. "When I ask you a question, you answer, you good for nothing slut," he growled, before breaking Aria's other leg.

Her screams fell on deaf ears. It didn't matter how many times aria screamed out in pain, he could never get enough of her screams. Whether they were of pleasure or pain, it didn't matter to him. He just wanted Aria to scream for him.

"_What are you doing?"_

Antonio was there, eyes dark, looking furious. Anthony didn't get his permission to torture his little sister, he just snapped Antonio's neck. But now his neck was healed and he was pissed off.

He shoved Anthony into a wall, hard enough to put a hole into it. Then he turned to Aria and gripped a stake in his hand. "Time to get this over with, little sister," he said, raising his weapon.

Anthony tackled Antonio to the ground. His eyes were red, his veins darkened, his fangs flashing. He wasn't done with Aria just yet. He still wanted to have some fun with her, maybe even sleep with her if he could manage it. Antonio was turning more into a nuisance than an ally.

"I'm not done with her yet," he growled, trying to pry the stake from Antonio's fingers.

"Yes, you are," Antonio snapped back. "Maybe Aria's not the monster I should be killing right now."

Anthony gave a humorless laugh. "Like _you _could kill _me." _He scoffed at the thought, before taking the stake away from Antonio. "More like _I'm _going to kill _you."_

Anthony raised the wooden weapon to stake Antonio, when he was suddenly thrown across the room, his head smashing into the stone floor.

Damon was in front of Aria, breaking one of the chains suspending her up in the air. She swung down to the floor, flinching as her healing legs hit the stone. Before Damon could break the other chain, Antonio threw him away from his sister.

Anthony stood up, rubbing his head as he watched Antonio and Damon square off. Then, in a flash, he was gone. If he lingered around any longer, he would surely get staked by Damon. He'd get Aria later.

As Antonio tackled Damon to the ground, Aria struggled to break the only chain that was binding her. She was weak, though. Maybe too weak.

"Are you really willing to die for my sister?" Antonio asked curiously as he pinned Damon down.

"'Course," Damon said, as if it was obvious. "But I'm not going to."

"Well, that's where you're wrong," Antonio said as he plunged his hand into Damon's chest.

Aria broke the chain by tugging hard on it, and then fell to the floor. The impact didn't help her healing legs. She moaned quietly as she looked up to see her big brother's hand in her best friend's chest, could practically see his hand clench around Damon's still heart.

"_No." _Aria's eyes widened in pure fear. Then, rage filled her. Antonio was going to hurt Damon, _her _Damon. She was going to hurt him.

In a blink of an eye, Aria was behind Antonio, dragging her heavy chains along with her. She plunged her hand into his back, right where his heart was. She gripped it tight, and then, without a thought, she ripped it out.

Damon saw Antonio's eyes widen as Aria ripped his heart out. Then he saw the light leave those eyes, identical to his sister's. Antonio slumped forward, and Damon rolled onto his side so that he wouldn't land on him.

Damon stood up to see Aria staring blankly at her brother's dead body, her bloody hand still clutching his heart. She did it. She couldn't believe that she had done it. Neither could Damon.

Aria had killed her brother. Again.

_**~EIATT~**_

Damon ushered Aria into the boarding house. Neither had said a word to each other since she had ripped Antonio's heart out. Aria's eyes were still wide, and she looked so haunted as Damon forced her into a chair.

He didn't know what to say to her. Nothing he could say would change how Aria felt at that moment- like a complete monster from the darkest depths of hell. It didn't even matter that Aria had no real choice when it came to killing Antonio. If she hadn't, they'd both be dead. It didn't matter, not to Aria.

So, instead, Damon poured Aria a shot of tequila and forced it into her hands.

"Drink it, Ria. You'll feel better," he urged her, yet she didn't move the glass up to her lips. She just stared blankly ahead.

Damon sighed and sat down next to her. "It wasn't your fault, Ria. You didn't have a choice," he murmured to her.

"But, I did," Aria said slowly, the first words she said in hours. "I did have a choice. There were a million different things I could have done differently, but I didn't do them. When I saw Antonio's hand in your chest, about to kill you, I-I I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip him apart. He hurt you, so I wanted to hurt him."

Damon frowned and didn't say anything. It was because of him that Aria felt like that. He had done nothing but damage that day. He hadn't even managed to kill Antonio. Damon sighed and looked away from his best friend. He didn't even realize how much of Aria's feelings towards him was given away by her little speech.

"I killed my brother," Aria whispered, not able to fully comprehend the words as she spoke them. "Again."

Damon leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. Aria just continued talking, as if he wasn't even there. "Do you know what the worst part is? I'm not even really that sorry. He was my brother, but we stopped being family centuries ago. He was going to kill me. He was going to kill _you. _And I'd choose you over my brother any day of the week."

Damon looked at her, eyebrows furrowed slightly. Aria looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She was feeling better about killing her brother, and that was more than what Damon could've hoped for.

Despite what had happened to both of them, Damon still found himself leaning into Aria. Then he stopped himself. He couldn't kiss Aria, no matter how much he wanted to. Even if she wasn't his best friend, it was a terribly inappropriate time to kiss her. No matter how much he wanted to.

Aria watched Damon with wide eyes straighten and clear his throat uncomfortably. "Do your shot, Ria. You need it, and we don't waste alcohol in this house."

Aria did as told, making a face as the strong alcohol burned its way down her throat. She didn't have a chaser either, which just made it worse. She knew she needed to go take a shower and go to bed, but she was comfortable on the couch with Damon. She didn't feel like moving.

But Damon stood up suddenly. He seemed to be debating internally with himself. "Where are you going?" Aria asked him as he walked away. Damon didn't answer.

Something had changed between the two of them. It didn't take Damon long to realize what it was. He had almost lost Aria. He didn't want her to die and not know how he felt about her, how he really felt about her. He seemed to realize just how short life really was, even for them.

"You know what?" Damon said to nobody in particular as he stopped walking suddenly. "Screw it. I really don't want to die without doing _this."_

Aria frowned and opened her mouth to ask him what he meant by that, when, suddenly, Damon was in front of her, his hands were cupping her face, and his lips were on hers.

It was everything the other had dreamed about and more. Damon pulled away far too quickly, and the two best friends just stared at each other, both in shock.

Aria was the first to come out of it. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around Damon's neck, pulling his lips down to hers. It was as if the two had never been friends, the way they were kissing. Damon wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged Aria tighter to him, desperate to get as close to her as possible.

The two stumbled up the stairs and to Damon's bedroom. Along the way, Damon's shirt and Aria's bra came off. When the two finally made it to his room, Aria took control and pinned Damon against his bed.

She quickly undid his belt, their lips never parting. "I love you," she mumbled suddenly against his lips, after flinging his belt aside.

Damon flipped them over, pulling away from Aria for a few seconds. He just stared into her eyes and gently caressed the side of her face with his fingertips. Then the moment was over, his lips were back on hers, the two were lost in a furiously passionate haze, and the rest of their clothes came flying off.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **And that, my friends, is what you've all been waiting for :)

Thank you to: Rejected-Starr, xxdarkvampireangelxx, SomebodyWhoCares, Stefanie, Katerina The Von, and TVDDamonSLover for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	19. heaven knows you showed up in time

**Chapter eighteen **

"_Heaven knows you showed up in time," – Longest Night by Howie Day_

Aria groaned softly as her eyes flickered open. She rubbed her eyes, sleep clogging her mind. As she sat up, she yawned and then stretched her arms. She ran a hand through her tangled curls, she realized she was naked. Completely naked.

Her frown was quickly replaced as her eyes widened slightly in shock. She looked to her left to see a shirtless Damon, eyes closed as he slept. They had slept together last night. They had had sex. Damon had kissed her. She told him she loved him.

Everything was all out in the open, and for the first time in decades, Aria felt free. She felt light, as if a huge, heavy weight had been lifted off of her. She felt happy, too. For the first time in a very long time, Aria felt completely, utterly, genuinely _happy. _She didn't have to worry about hiding her feelings from Damon any longer. She was free from that burden. Aria was happy.

She didn't stop to think how Damon would react to waking up next to her, after a night of wild, impulsive sex with his best friend. She figured since he initiated it, he would be completely fine with having an actual relationship with her, that he'd love her now. Their friendship was gone, ruined. They didn't have to worry about that now.

Grinning, Aria bent over Damon and kissed him on the lips. She would never get used to the feeling of his lips on hers. She had kissed many men in her long life, but there was nothing quite like kissing Damon, even when he was asleep. His lips were rough, yet soft. He kissed her hard, yet his kisses were gentle. Everything about Damon's kisses contradicted each other. He was just one big contradiction.

Standing up, Aria smiled once more at Damon before walking to the bathroom to take a shower. All thoughts of Antonio were out of her head. She didn't even hate herself for killing him. For once in her life, Aria didn't hate herself. It was pathetic and would outrage any sort of feminist, but being with Damon made her stop hating herself. It didn't make her love herself, it just made it easier to look at her reflection in the mirror. It made her realize that if somebody was able to love her in any way, shape, or form, that maybe she wasn't such a monster after all.

Damon stared up at his ceiling, eyes wide as he thought about what he and Aria had done last night. He thought about how their friend was ruined, done for, gone forever. But then again, since when was the last time he and Aria had truly been friends? without their sexual tension eating them alive?

He couldn't remember.

The truth was- the honest truth- he didn't regret anything that happened between him and Aria last night. He didn't. He should have, and he tried to, but it wasn't in him. Deep down, he enjoyed it. He was _glad _that it happened. He didn't regret kissing Aria, or sleeping with her. He didn't even regret hearing her tell him she loved him.

He didn't regret it, but he _was _terrified.

Just the thought of Aria now terrified him. She _loved _him, not as friends, not as family. She was in love with him. And now if he lost her, if he lost the knowledge knowing that somebody truly loved him, he didn't know what he would do. He supposed he would just turn into the worst version of himself, a version nobody could ever love. A monster.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face. He couldn't even think about if he loved Aria or not. What if he did? And then what if she decided she didn't want him anymore? What if she decided that she never loved him? What if she found someone better? What if she turned into Katherine?

He knew that Aria wasn't Katherine. He wouldn't have been her friend to begin with if she had been anything even remotely like Katherine. Aria was just Aria, not manipulative like Katherine. She wouldn't treat him like she did. She wouldn't hurt him like she did. But Damon was messed up from Katherine- she had messed him up.

Damon didn't regret anything that happened last night, but he was terrified of it. Of what it would do to him.

He heard the water shut off, and then heard Aria get out of the shower. She was humming a song, something Damon couldn't recognize. That's when it hit Damon that she was happy. She wasn't freaking out like he was. Aria was happy, and she expected Damon to be the same. He couldn't tell if he was happy. If Katherine had never happened to him, he would have been. Hell, if Katherine had never happened he and Aria would have gotten together a long time ago.

Aria smiled at him as she walked into the room, her blue eyes sparkling with joy as her wet hair dripped drops of water on her skin. She had only a white towel wrapped around her body, but she dropped it and walked to his closet completely naked.

He watched her, mesmerized by her body. "Don't mind if I borrowed a shirt, do you?" she asked, already going through his clothes.

Had Damon not been afraid of the old vampire in front of him, who held the promise of everything he had always secretly wanted, Damon would have replied something along the lines of her not needing to wear anything for what he had planned for them that day. He would have gotten out of bed and pinned her against a wall. He would have kissed her fiercely and she would have smiled. Yet Damon did none of those things, just nodded curtly and stared up at the ceiling.

Aria frowned as she slipped on a black shirt that went to the middle of her thigh and buttoned up the buttons. She instantly knew that something was wrong. She had been too quick to assume that Damon would be as happy as her. He hadn't been in love with her since the twenties, like she had with him. Their situations were different.

"You- you're not happy, are you?" she asked slowly, her face falling as the twinkle in her eyes went out. "You regret last night, don't you?"

Damon shook his head as he stood up. "Aria, you don't understand-" he started to say, but she cut him off.

"Oh, I understand perfectly, Damon," she shot at him, temper firing up, anger taking place of the rejection she felt. It hurt, so much, being rejected. Damon knew that, and he felt bad for making Aria feel like she was being rejected.

"How are you going to play off last night? Are you going to say that you weren't in your right mind? That you were just _so _happy that neither of us died, you couldn't control yourself?" she spat, before scoffing. "Just tell me the truth, Damon. You don't love me, do you?"

"Who said anything about love?" he shot at her suddenly, getting angry because she was angry. "It was just sex, Aria. Love has nothing to do with it."

Her eyes narrowed, and Aria felt as if he had slapped her. "You're wrong," she whispered. "love does have something to do with it, Damon. _I _love _you. _I told you that. Last night."

Damon suddenly felt the need to hurt her with his words, to hurt her for dare saying that. "For me, Aria," he snapped. "Love has nothing to do with it for me."

It worked. Her face flushed of any color, and Aria flinched. Damon felt guilty, but he knew it was better this way. Aria could never hurt him if he hurt her first.

"Screw you," she muttered, already walking towards the door.

"You already did," he retorted, just as Aria slammed his door behind her.

Aria felt her eyes sting with tears as she marched to her bedroom. She started throwing her clothes into bags, desperate to get out of the boarding house, to get away from Damon. She needed to get away from him.

So much for being happy.

_**~EIATT~**_

Aria angrily threw her bags into the backseat of her car, and then drove away from the boarding house without looking back. She was done with Damon, done with everything. She would go back to New York, back to drinking and hot guys and…

…no one.

The only person Aria had in her life was Damon. Only she didn't have him anymore. Aria was completely alone now.

She shook her head to clear it, as she pulled into the Mystic Grill. She needed some alcohol, strong alcohol. Now that her anger was fading, all Aria felt was pain and rejection. She didn't want to feel those things.

Aria sat down at the bar and ordered a bottle of tequila. Then she began tossing back shots, not caring that she had to drive. The alcohol numbed the pain, numbed the sting of rejection. Eventually the bartender took her bottle away, but Aria was already drunk enough. It didn't matter.

"What's troubling you now, Ria?"

Aria stiffened as she looked up at a smirking Anthony. She tried to back away, but stumbled because of the alcohol in her system. "Stay away from me," she growled, remembering about how he tortured her not even 24 hours ago.

Anthony sighed. "Are you still mad, Aria?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"Mad that you tried to kill me? Yeah, you could say that," she muttered. "Seriously, go away. I'm not in the mood."

His eyebrows shot up. "Bad mood? Well, then. I know exactly what'll cheer you up."

Aria's eyebrows furrowed. "What are you-" she cut herself off, eyes widening as Anthony reached across the bar and sunk his fangs into the bartender.

The man didn't scream, though. He didn't react at all. Eventually his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the ground, dead. Anthony pulled away and wiped his mouth. When he saw Aria's expression, he rolled his eyes.

"Relax, Ria," he said. "I already compelled everybody."

She didn't respond, though. She just shook her head and stood up. "I don't know what game you're playing Anthony, but I'm not joining in. I'm leaving town."

Anthony's eyebrows rose again. "What about Damon? Trouble in paradise?" he asked with a smirk.

Aria's eyes hardened. "Just shut your mouth, alright?" she snapped, before turning her back and marching towards the door.

Anthony sighed and grabbed her arm. "Come on, Ria. Let go for once. Have some fun. Kill some people."

She shook her head fiercely. "I don't do that anymore."

He rolled his eyes. "You're a vampire- you always kill people. It's what we do. It's what our kind does. We kill people. And we like it, too."

She just shook her head again. "Leave me alone," she muttered, pulling out of his grasp.

Anthony blocked her way as she made for the door, though. And in his grasp was a girl, no older than seventeen. She didn't move, she wasn't afraid. Her big blue eyes just stared blankly at Aria.

Anthony bit into her neck and then pushed her into Aria. Aria stared at the girl's bleeding neck, mesmerized by the bead of blood slowly trickling down the smooth, tanned skin. At that moment, she wanted nothing more to tear into the girl's neck and drink her blood until her veins ran dry. Then Aria shook her head and pushed the girl away from her. No, she couldn't. She didn't do that anymore.

"No," she said stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Anthony glared at her and then picked up the girl and pushed her back towards Aria. "Kill her, Ria. You know you want to. I can see it in your eyes."

Aria looked down at the girl again. She was mess. Her happiness was gone. The one good thing in her life was gone. And she wanted to take it all out on this one girl. She felt her eyes darken and her fangs press down into her lip. Then, without a thought, she tore into the girl's neck.

Aria didn't stop. She kept feeding until the girl's veins ran dry. And when she fell to the ground, dead, Aria just grabbed another human and bit into them. Anthony smirked as he watched her kill. He was proud of himself for getting her to do this.

Aria killed everyone in the bar, all twelve of them. And as she stared at the dead bodies, face covered in blood, breathing heavily, fangs retracting into her gums, it hit her, what she had done.

Aria had killed. After almost three hundred years of not killing, she had murdered twelve innocent people. And she had _liked _it too.

Aria truly was a monster.

She flashed out of the bar, not caring about Anthony anymore. She had _killed. murdered. Ended lives. Dropped bodies. _She was evil incarnated, a monster of the worst kind. And she knew what she had to do, to save everyone else.

She had to kill herself.

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **sorry it took me so long. Writer's block :/

The next chapter is going to be the last one.

Thanks: klandgraf2007, Rejected-Starr, AudreyDarke96, Katerina The Von, TVDDamonSLover, SomebodyWhoCares, and 2cute4u-22 for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)


	20. don't let me go

**Chapter nineteen**

"_Don't let me go,"- Never Say Never by The Fray_

"_Hey, this is Aria. I obviously can't answer the phone right now, so leave a message and I probably still won't get back to you." Beep._

Damon sighed and ran a hand over his face as he paced his room in his boxers. "Ria, please answer the phone. I'm sorry, okay? You left, and you deserved to leave. But please don't leave, I need to talk to you. I'm sorry." Damon sighed again. "I'm so sorry. Please call me back, okay? Or answer the phone?"

Damon sighed again as he hung up the phone. He was ashamed of how he acted, of how he treated Aria. She didn't deserve that, his best friend. That's when he realized that both of them had been wrong. They could be best friends and lovers at the same time. Because Aria was still Damon's best friend, but he loved her too. He really did.

And he hated himself for how he treated her, for how he pushed her away.

Damon quickly pulled on pants and a shirt, then grabbed his keys and drove to the Grill. He had a feeling that Aria would have stopped and gotten wasted before leaving Mystic Falls. And Damon had to stop her, he had to apologize, he had to try his damn hardest to win her back. Because Aria deserved all of his efforts.

When Damon pulled to a stop in front of the bar, he got out of his car and walked inside it. His eyes were so busy scanning the place for Aria, he almost missed the horrific scene. Then he did a double take and realized what he was missing.

Bodies. There were a lot of bodies. Around a dozen of them. They were all dead too. Blood stained almost every surface, eyes of every color stared up blankly at the ceiling. But the thing that got to Damon the most was not the horrifying scene in front of him- he had seen worse- but of the scent that surrounded him.

Aria.

"She really can cause a mess, can't she?"

Damon turned around to face Anthony. The jackass was smirking as he took a swig from a bottle of scotch in his hand. "What did you do to her?" Damon growled, glaring at him. Though, deep down, it made him feel better, knowing that he would never be as bad as Anthony, the way he treated Aria. He could never be as bad as him.

"I did nothing," he said. "I just gave her a push in the right direction, and she snapped. Though, if we're both honest, Damon, Ria's been on a brink of snapping for weeks now."

Damon shook his head. "Aria wouldn't do this. She doesn't kill people. Not anymore."

"I would beg to differ," Anthony said arrogantly. "But I have to say, watching her feed on people, kill them, rip their throats out, it was… so hot."

Damon narrowed his eyes at him. He was a sick, twisted mother-

"She freaked out right after, though. Ran out. Who the hell knows where she is?" Anthony smirked, like he knew exactly where she went. "Oh, wait, I know. I could tell by her eyes, how much she hated herself. I bet it doesn't help that you screwed her up quite a bit. Did you know that Aria hasn't killed a human in almost three centuries?"

Damon frowned at him, fear eating away at him. "What are saying?"

"I'm saying that our dear, sweet Aria is going to kill herself."

Damon turned around and stormed out of the Grill as soon as he said that. He didn't want it to be true, but deep down he knew it was. And he wasn't going to waste any more time with Anthony. He had to stop Aria. He couldn't let her kill herself.

He called her again, but just got her stupid voicemail for the thousandth time. He was surprised he hadn't filled up her voicemail yet.

"Aria, I get it, you're pissed at me. You have every right to be. And I promise that if you answer me, you can curse me out in every language you know- and I know you're fluent in at least five. I just need to know that you're alright. So call me back, alright? Or at least answer your damn phone."

Damon hung up and ran a hand over his face. She was going to kill herself. Maybe she already had. It didn't matter. Damon had to stop her.

And he knew exactly where she'd go too.

_**~EIATT~**_

It was a ten hour drive from Mystic Falls to Massachusetts. Aria pulled up to the same dock she was at 126 years ago. The dock, of course, had been rebuilt, but it was still in the same place as it had been.

She had four hours until the sun went up. Aria sat on the edge of the dock and let her feet dip into the water, as she unhooked her necklace and set it down next to her. She took her cellphone out of her pocket to see that Damon had left her over a dozen messages. Her eyes narrowed- she didn't want to talk to Damon, of all people. He'd probably be happy that she was going to kill herself. Without another thought, Aria tossed her phone into the water.

Laying down across the dock, Aria stared up at the stars. That would be the last time she saw them, the last time she saw the moon. She had to die, though. She deserved it. She was a monster, and monsters deserved to die.

Besides, it wasn't like she had much left to live for. It would be much easier this way, just to die out here on the creaky old dock. The sun would disintegrate her body and the ashes would wash away in the water and it would be like she never existed.

When she thought about burning alive, she was a little afraid. But she kept reminding herself that she deserved this, that she _wanted _this. She was getting what she had coming for centuries. Karma was a bitch.

Aria must've laid there for hours. When she checked her watch, it read four AM. Just one more hour until the sun came up. Just one more hour and she would no longer be alive. She convinced herself that she was okay with that, but she really wasn't.

"If you didn't want to get discovered, you probably shouldn't of gone to the same exact place you went 126 years ago to kill yourself."

Aria sat up sharply and turned around to look at Damon, his face void of any humor. He had his arms crossed over his face and looked like hell. Aria glared at him and turned back to face the wavy water.

"I didn't worry about you discovering me because I was sure you wouldn't care," she muttered.

"Well, you were wrong about that. I do care," Damon said, walking towards her.

"Then why, Damon? If you care about me- if you care if I live or die- why did you act like- like Anthony this morning?" she demanded.

Damon flinched slightly when she compared him to Anthony. She wasn't wrong, though. He had been acting a little bit like Anthony. He opened his mouth to speak, but she was already talking.

"It doesn't matter. This has nothing to do with you. For the first time since I met you, something in my life has nothing to do with you!" she shouted, her voice echoing across the water.

Damon was silent, walking up to her side and sitting down next to her. "I know it isn't, Aria. I know it isn't about me. It's about how you killed those people, back at the Grill," he said quietly.

She bit her lip. "I can't carry this guilt anymore Damon," she whispered. "It's eating me alive. It's going to kill me."

"So you're going to kill yourself before it can kill you," Damon deadpanned.

Aria sighed. "It's for the best, Damon," she insisted.

"No, it's not!" he exclaimed suddenly, losing his head. "It's not for the best and don't you _dare _say so. Because if you die, then I'll lose you and I can't handle that."

Aria's eyebrows furrowed. She wanted to think that he cared about her, but she couldn't. Not when she was an hour away from dying. "You need to stop hating yourself for something you had no control over," Damon continued. "I've never met a vampire who hadn't killed at least one person. Killing is in our nature. Liking it is in our nature too. And you know what? You try. You try to be better than the average vampire, and that's what makes you better. Your guilt is what makes you better than the rest of us."

Aria just kept staring at Damon as he continued his speech under the stars. "I don't want you to die, Aria. I don't care how I acted this morning. I was scared, okay? I was so scared of being in love again that I pushed you away. God knows that if I hadn't, we wouldn't be here right now." He stopped to take a deep, unnecessary breath. "But I love you, Aria. I really do. And I'm not scared of that anymore."

She closed her eyes. How long had she dreamt about hearing those words? Imagined them coming out of Damon's mouth? She certainly never pictured it taking place at the site of her suicide.

"You're not going to let me kill myself, are you?" she asked quietly, still staring at the wavy gray water.

Damon took another deep breath. "I want you to live only if you want to live. I don't want to drag you out of here and then wake up one morning to find your ashes on the floor. I want you to live because you want to. I don't even want you to live for me, I want you to live for you. So yes, I'm going to let you kill yourself if that's really what you want, what you need to do. No matter how bad it sounds."

They sat there in silence as Aria reconsidered killing herself. A pained look crossed over Damon's face and he stood up. "You have an hour until sunrise, but I think you already decided."

"Wait," Aria said, frowning, as Damon began to walk away. "You're just going to leave?"

"Yeah," he said, turning around to look at her. "I'm not going to sit here and watch you kill yourself, Ria. I can't do it. So yeah, I'm gonna leave."

He bent over to kiss her gently on the forehead. "I love," he whispered. "Remember that."

Damon walked down the rickety old wooden dock, and Aria watched him. He really was going to let her die, if that's what she wanted.

And that's all it took to convince Aria that she didn't want to die.

"Wait!" she shouted at his back, stopping him. She grabbed her necklace and raced after him. "I don't, Damon. I don't want to die."

Damon pulled her into his arms, hugging her. Aria wrapped her arms around Damon's neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You weren't going to let me die," she murmured after ten minutes of silence.

"No," he agreed. "I only wanted you to think so. I had every intention of snapping your neck and dragging your ass out of here if I had to."

Aria smiled. She would expect nothing less of Damon.

He pulled away from her and took her daylight necklace from her hands. He slipped it gently around her neck and then grabbed her face with both of his hands. He kissed her then, and, despite the two of them being best friends for 126 years, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

_**~EIATT~**_

Aria and Damon drove back to Mystic Falls, her hand in his the entire drive. The sun rose during the drive, and Aria couldn't help but be thankful that it didn't burn her up, and that her ashes didn't get washed away by the water like she never existed.

"I'm going to kill him," Damon was saying, the him being Anthony.

"No," Aria said suddenly, causing Damon to raise an eyebrow. "I am," she finished and he smirked.

"Fine, I'll allow that," he said. "Now the only thing we have left to do is to actually kill him."

"Shouldn't be too difficult," Aria said. "His guard's down. He expects me to be dead right now. He's probably in some bar right now, seducing some poor woman who's going to die tonight."

"Well, then," Damon said with a smirk. "We'll just have to kill him first, won't we?"

Aria had been right. That night, Anthony was at the Grill, seducing a young red head who was soaking up every minute of his attention. When the two walked outside to go to her place, Damon and Aria were waiting.

Damon slammed Anthony against the wall, and the girl screamed. Aria grabbed her and compelled her. "Go home. Forget everything that's happened tonight," she compelled, and the girl walked away, her memory erased.

"So, Ria, I see you're still walking amongst the living," Anthony said. "So it's easy to assume that you didn't kill yourself. What a bummer."

Aria rolled her eyes. She was done with hearing him speak. She just wanted to feel his heart in her hand. Damon pinned Anthony down, and then Aria stalked forward, staring Anthony in the eyes. Not breaking eye contact, she sunk her hand in his chest. Pain filled his eyes, and when she ripped his heart out, the light went out. And then, finally, he was dead.

Aria dropped his heart on the ground and wiped her hand on Anthony's shirt. She turned to face Damon, who was smiling a satisfied smirk.

"That felt really good," she said with a smile.

"I bet it did," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and steering her away from Anthony's body.

"Aren't we going to get rid of his body?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah, I'd rather it rot," Damon said with a smirk.

Aria rolled her eyes, and then Damon stopped them in the middle of the empty sidewalk, to place a kiss on her lips.

"I love you," he told her, brushing a piece of hair out of her face.

Aria smiled slightly, feeling as if this was a dream. "I love you too," she whispered.

She bent up on her tip toes to kiss him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He kissed her back hard, pulling her closer to him until there was no space between their bodies.

Finally, after 126 years of friendship, Aria Moretti and Damon Salvatore realized just how better off they were as lovers.

**The end**

_**~EIATT~**_

**A/N: **thank you to everyone who read, favorited, alerted, and reviewed this story! your support meant a lot to me!

I'm really sad to see this story be over, Aria was really fun to write.

Thank you all, so much!


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